Watched
by Sleeping Bag
Summary: Raven catches the attention of a mysterious stranger. Who is he, how does he know so much about her, and what is his connection to the recent string of demon attacks in Jump City?
1. From the Shadows

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. If high-powered lawyer types want to sue my ass over some little fanfiction, they can go right ahead.

_-CHAPTER ONE-_

At night, from overhead, Jump City was beautiful.

The glowing pinpricks of the city lights look like tiny diamonds spread out over a sheet of black velvet. The slums of the inner city and the groups of rundown warehouses near the docks, which were so visible in the day, now only appear as dark patches amongst the lights, invisible, and therefore untroubling to the casual observer. Indeed, most wouldn't even notice those dark patches, for they would be distracted by the beauty of the lights, the diamonds.

But all was not well in diamond-land tonight; breaking the stillness of the night, a bright fireball erupts from amongst the set of lights that makes up the business district, closely followed by the boom of the explosion's shockwave, sight and sound having been split from one another by the distance.

Zoom in.

A man levitated about twenty feet off the ground in the middle of the street, laughing. The source of the explosion, an eighteen-wheeler that had been carrying oil, lay on its side, burning, a short distance away, and the surrounding buildings appeared heavily damaged. They had been the tall glass-covered skyscrapers typical of any city's business district, and broken glass lay in piles all around. As for the man himself, he looked remarkably out of place in this scene of destruction, being a small, portly, balding, bespectacled man of about forty. Nothing about him looked anything but ordinary, aside, of course, from his levitation, glowing red eyes, and mad laughter. It seemed quite odd for such an otherwise mundane man to be the cause of such destruction, but no-one seemed to want to point that out to him; most people had already fled the area, and besides, his rampage was continuing unabated.

Ah, but some newcomers have arrived on the scene. Who could they be? One seems to want to say something…

"Titans! _GO!_"

As one, the Titans leapt at the man, falling with practiced ease into their usual battle positions. Hoping to take him down quickly, Cyborg, Robin, and Beast Boy closed in to strike, only to be repelled by some kind of energy shield. This same shield also served to block Starfire's starbolts and Raven's telekinetically hurled objects. The man just laughed.

"Okay, so maybe this won't be so easy," said Robin, readying a handful of explosive throwing discs. He smiled grimly. "That's fine with me."

Robin charged, throwing the discs ahead of him, but the man just put up another shield to block the explosives. Robin tried to change direction to catch the man off guard, but found himself held by what looked like the same kind of energy that made up the shield. With nothing more than a casual gesture, the man tossed Robin aside like a rag doll. Robin tried to recover from his fall, but he hit his head on the pavement and was knocked out.

"Robin!" cried Starfire. She was about to fly to him, but Raven stopped her.

"He's just out cold, Star," she said. "He'll be fine. We need you more here." Starfire bit her lip, but nodded agreement.

"Damn! We can't get close enough to him to do any damage. That shield of his blocks everything!" said Cyborg.

"Yeah, and is there any reason why his powers look kinda like Raven's?" asked Beast Boy. Raven narrowed her eyes. The energy the man controlled did look very similar to her own powers, although while hers appeared as a black aura with white edges, his appeared as a black aura with blood red edges.

"I guess I'll have to find out," she said in her usual monotone, and floated closer to the still cackling man.

"What are you going to do? Ask him?" said Beast Boy.

"No, moron, I'm going to project myself into his mind," Raven said. She closed her eyes, concentrated a moment, and then spoke her usual magic words.

"_Azarath, metrion, zinthos_."

The man stopped laughing, cried out as if in pain, and doubled over clutching at his head, still floating about twenty feet in the air.

"Dude! Raven's psychic whamma-jamma is working!" said Beast Boy.

"Go Raven!" yelled Cyborg.

"Glorious! Once again, Friend Raven's mind powers have granted us victory!" said Starfire.

"Once again? Man, I was totally the one who granted us victory last time!" said Beast Boy. "Remember how I turned into a horse and kicked the crap out of…"

Beast Boy's story, whether it was true or not, was interrupted by a snarl of rage. The man seemed to have broken Raven's psychic attack, and now stared at her with an expression of pure rage. Raven grunted as she struggled to maintain her hold on the man's mind, but the force of his counterattack quickly overwhelmed her. She screamed and dropped to the ground, and the man resumed his maniacal laughter. Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Starfire ran up to protect Raven where she had fallen.

"Raven! Friend, wake up! What has happened?" cried Starfire. Raven groaned and got unsteadily to her feet.

"Don't worry about me," she said. "He has some nasty psychic defences, that's all. I'll be fine in a second." She shook her head to clear it. "More important is what I found out about him before he kicked me out of his mind," Raven continued.

"What?" Cyborg asked. "Can we use it to beat him?"

"Yes, we can beat him," Raven replied. "I know what he is now. He's a demon, or rather, he's being possessed by one."

"A demon?" Beast Boy said. "What, like your da…"

"_Don't say it_," Raven interrupted. She sighed. "Look, I can banish the demon, but I need you guys to buy me some time. It'll take a few minutes before the spell is ready." The other three looked at each other.

"Alright! You heard the lady!" Cyborg yelled. "Titans! _GO!_"

"Hey, why do _you_ get to be the leader?" Beast Boy complained.

"Oh, just shut up and go already, grass stain!"

Raven suppressed a smile, closed her eyes, and began chanting.

"_Azarath, metrion, zinthos. Azarath, metrion, zinthos. Azarath…_"

Her spell did indeed take several minutes to complete. In the meantime, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire fought the crazed man, and although they were still unable to penetrate his defenses, they were at least able to keep him busy until Raven was done. Intoning the last of the spell's incantations, Raven allowed herself to float up off the ground until she was level with the man.

"Cyborg! Beast Boy! Starfire!" She called. "I'm done! Get out of there!"

As her allies scattered, Raven collected the power of the spell in her hands, where it was visible as spheres that seemed to glow in spite of their blackness. The man turned his mad eyes, still glowing red, to look right at her as she floated closer to him.

"Back for more, eh, witch?" he said, the first coherent sentence to come out of his mouth. His voice was impossibly low, with just a hint of multiple voices speaking at once. Raven glared at him.

"I have nothing to say to you," she growled. She raised her hands, pointing her palms towards the man. "Begone, demon!" she screamed, and released the spell.

Blackness erupted from her hands towards the man. He screamed in terror and raised a shield, but the spell broke through it as though it was not even there. He was silenced as the blackness enveloped him entirely, although his face was still contorted in a voiceless scream.

Then, the man seemed to explode with light.

The other Titans, who had moved Robin out of the way just as Raven began her attack, covered their eyes to block out the light, but it permeated everything, blinding them. Then, just as soon as it had appeared, the light vanished. The spell was completed, and the demon had been sent back to wherever it had come from. Now powerless, the man groaned and started to fall.

"Star!" Cyborg shouted.

"I have got him!" called Starfire, as she rocketed past to catch the man just a few feet from the pavement. She returned to where Cyborg and Beast Boy were sitting near Robin, who was still out cold, and lay the man gently on the ground.

"I believe that he has also been rendered not awake, as Robin has," she said, in her usual idiosyncratic English. Before anyone could respond, Raven walked up to them, looking even more pale than usual. The spell had taken a lot out of her, but she would never admit it.

"Can we go home now?" she said.

**ooo**

Far away, atop a skyscraper in another part of the city, a shadowy figure was watching. He had seen everything, from the very beginning. Indeed, he had been watching even before the man had gone on his insane rampage, just waiting for something.

"Yes," he whispered to himself. "That is definitely her."

A smaller shadow appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and wrapped itself around his left arm. It was a snake, of indeterminate species, but it had a glint of intelligence in its eyes not seen in most normal reptiles. It hissed insistently. The shadowy man chuckled, and began absent-mindedly stroking the creature's head as he turned his attention back to the destruction in the business district. The police had moved in, as well as several clean up crews; it looked like the action was over.

"Did you see that, my friend?" the man said, addressing the snake. "Did you see the kind of power she was throwing around?" The snake hissed again.

"She couldn't be any older than sixteen or seventeen, too," the man continued. "To have that kind of power, at her age…" He turned away from the distant scene of destruction and stepped deeper into the shadows.

"Yes, there can be no doubting it," the shadowy figure said as he disappeared from sight. "She is Raven of Azarath, daughter of Trigon the Terrible."

The snake hissed again. The man sighed.

"Yes, fine. I'll feed you. Now shut up."

_-END CHAPTER ONE-_

**Author's Note:** (This is a big Author's Note, since this is my first installment.) Okay, so that's chapter one done. I know it doesn't do much in terms of plot advancement, character development, or pretty much anything else aside from introducing that guy in the shadows at the end ("Who was that masked man?"), but that's all it was meant to do. Think of it like the little intro sequences before the theme song in the show. Oh, and for all the Robin fans out there, don't worry, he's not going to get his ass kicked every time. He'll be opening up a few cans, nay, _barrels_ of whoop ass later on. It's just that here, the crazy guy was a lot more powerful than Robin thought he was; he made a tactical error, and Robin doesn't have any super powers to fall back on, so he took it on the chin this time.

I might have said something in one of my previous stories (Duplomatic, Booby Trap, and Silly Villainy) about wanting to keep away from Raven-focused stories for the next little while, since Duplomatic was mostly about her. Unfortunately, all my good ideas seem to be Raven-focused, so screw it. Here's what you get.

Also, for all the people out there wondering what character pairings I'll be using, this won't be a particularly romantic story. That said, I'm going to at least try to be true to the characters and their relationships as they appear in the show, so there might be some Robin and Starfire stuff, but only a little, and Beast Boy's relationship with Raven won't go any further than "usually irritating, but sometimes sensitive". As for Cyborg, he doesn't need a girlfriend—he has video games and a car, silly! And if there are any of you who refuse to read stories that don't have Raven and Beast Boy shamelessly making eyes at each other or something, well, that's your loss, Sparky. Oh, and Terra won't be showing up. She's been statue-ified at this point (in terms of timeline, I'd put this story somewhere in the middle of season 3, but don't hold me too strictly to that).

Anyway, read and review. Please don't flame, blah blah blah. Also, be patient with my updates—I'm leaving tomorrow to spend Christmas with my family, so I'll be away from my computer (which is at university), so I probably won't be able to update again until the 9th of January or so. I'm in the process of doing some _serious_ revision to later chapters of this story as well, so that might delay things a bit too. Hopefully not too much, and it should result in a much more streamlined plot. I _will _be updating at some point, though, so don't lose hope.


	2. Shopping, Raven Style

(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. I'd say something witty, but whatever.)

**Author's Note:** Okay, just before I get started, let me apologize for how long it's taken me to post up more of this story. The combination of a massive rewrite, Christmas holidays (i.e. being away from my computer, which is at school), and my own natural laziness meant that I didn't have anything to put up over the holidays. I also wasn't writing anything, and didn't have a buffer—truth be told, I probably posted Chapter 1 before I was ready to. But now I'm back, and writing again, so things should go okay from here on. Anyway, I hope I haven't lost too much interest with this delay (wait, wait—I had interest?). I'll try to make it up to you guys by making this a good story, but since this is only my second serious story that might be a bit iffy. Oh, well. It's up to you guys to decide if it's good or not, so read on! Oh, and while I'm here…

**To My Reviewers:**

Zoe Rose: Thank you. I do try to keep the characters as close to what is seen in the show as possible. Sorry to keep you waiting, but here goes!

Mephisto2022: Thanks for your trust. Fight scenes are kind of my Achilles' Heel at this point, but I will work on them. There will be some humour later on, so don't worry about that. Look out for the Ghostbusters theme song, amongst other things. I hope I don't get sued for it, like they did, though.

CloudsHalo: Good to see your long reviews again. I will definitely stay further away from the whole romance thing than I did in Duplomatic (sorry, romanciphiles), and this will again be a _very_ Raven-centred story. The weird thing about the fight scene in Chapter 1 is that I actually wrote it _before_ I wrote Duplomatic, but didn't post it until now (or rather, three weeks ago) because I didn't like the way I had planned out the rest of the story. Beginner's luck, maybe? Oh, well.

Anyway, on with the story! Oooh, the paragraph breaks are capital O's now! Rockin'!

**OOO**

_-CHAPTER TWO-_

The next morning, it was business as usual in Titans Tower. The Titans had faced psychotic villains, robotic ninjas, slime monsters, and all manner of other horrors, and a single demonic possession was not about to cause any lasting effects on them. Robin had suffered a minor concussion, but after some quick healing from Raven the only thing that was still wounded was his pride. The other Titans had suffered minor scrapes and bruises, but again, these had been healed by the resident sorceress. So, as has been said, the next morning was business as usual. This of course meant that Cyborg and Beast Boy were fighting over the meat content of breakfast, Starfire was doing something unmentionable to ingredients better left unnamed in an attempt to recreate one of the many delicacies of her homeworld, and Robin was reading the newspaper on the couch—the front page headline read "Terrorists Made My Daughter a Lesbian", with a picture of Dick Cheney underneath.

Oh, and Raven was trying not to be noticed.

"_Psssst!_" she hissed. She was currently poking her head out of a small portal she had formed on the couch cushion next to Robin.

"Huh?" said Robin, looking up from his newspaper. He looked around futilely, trying to find the source of the sound.

"_Down here!_" Raven whispered. Robin looked down and began to scream at the disembodied Raven head, but was cut off by a band of dark energy clamping over his mouth.

"_Quiet! Do you want her to hear?_" Raven whispered urgently.

"Uhhh…who?" said Robin, once she had released her hold on his mouth.

"_Never mind that now, I'm just letting you know that I'm heading out to…uhh…do some things,_" Raven continued.

"Wait, why didn't you just come and tell me?" asked Robin. "Who are you trying to avoid?"

"Friend Raven's head! Joyous morning to you! Did I hear you say you were going out somewhere?" cried Starfire, appearing next to the couch, seemingly without having traveled the distance between it and the kitchen. Raven swore in what might have been Aramaic.

"Oh," said Robin.

"I believe that now is about the time of month when you go shopping for magical items to restock your supplies," continued Starfire, "and since you promised me that you would take me with you sometime, I am certain that I would have been the next person to whom you would appear! How lucky that I found you here, so you would not have to expend precious energy making a second portal!"

"Uhhh…Yeah…" said Raven.

"And I'm sure that you were not even thinking of leaving me behind!" said Starfire. Her tone did not change by anything more than the slightest fraction, but there was still just a hint of an uncharacteristic edge to her voice. Robin tried to inch away while keeping up the appearance of reading his newspaper, and Raven cursed again under her breath. Despite her usual naïveté, Starfire could actually be quite shrewd at times, and she took shopping _very_ seriously. Raven sighed.

"We'll leave after breakfast," said Raven, accepting her defeat.

"Glorious!" cried Starfire. "I look forward to seeing the purveyors of magical items whose shops you frequent!"

Raven muttered something about nosy aliens, idiosyncratic English, and the colour orange as her head disappeared back into the portal. Robin visibly relaxed as Starfire returned to the kitchen, where Cyborg and Beast Boy were still arguing about sources of protein.

**OOO**

An hour and a half later, Raven and Starfire came to the district commonly known as Magic Alley. It had a reputation in Jump City as being just a weird place with strange shops that sold hokey items at ridiculous prices, claiming that they had magical qualities, and that was largely what it was, but if you knew what you were looking for, as Raven did, there were actually some genuine magic shops there as well. In fact, things had been purposefully set up this way to ensure that those who _didn't_ know what they were looking for never got their hands on anything with any real power—the magical community in Jump City had learned quickly after the incident in 1985 involving three Czechoslovakian tourists, two taxis, an elephant, and a cursed monkey hand. Nobody wanted to see something like that happen again. It had taken them weeks to clean up all the ectoplasm and Victor the Unstable, one of the Magic Alley shopkeepers, had never been the same since.

Raven took Starfire to a few shops, tactfully steering her away from the considerably flashier decoy shops which invariably caught her attention, and hoping desperately that her alien friend would not cause any lasting damage to her reputation in the magical community. She had to be on the alert at all times, since Starfire naturally tended towards the "Ask What It Is As You Poke It" school of curiosity, something that had gotten not a few incautious people killed in Magic Alley over the years. Raven also had to explain several times that they would not at any point in the outing be seeing Harry Potter, since he was, in fact, fictional.

"That means not real, Starfire," said Raven, for the fourth time.

"Oh. Are you sure?"

"_Yes._"

"But that boy over there has a scar like…"

"Starfire, we've seen nearly a dozen people now who have dressed up like Harry Potter in a misguided attempt to seem cool, and probably also to pick up girls. We've been through this before. That _isn't_ him," said Raven. "Besides, _he_ isn't exactly a boy. He looks like he's forty-five."

"But…"

"We've also seen eight Gandalfs, three professor Dumbledores, a pair of Doctor Stranges, and five people dressed like me, one of whom was a _guy_," Raven continued with a shudder. "Just because someone is dressed up like somebody doesn't mean they actually _are_ that person."

"Yes, Raven," muttered Starfire, obviously deflated. Raven sighed. As irritating as Starfire's perpetual good mood could be, Raven hated seeing her friend looking down.

"Look, you'll like this next shop," she said. "They have mostly books and some reasonably stable spell components—it isn't anything too dangerous, so you can look around if you want." Starfire brightened at this, her usual smile quickly returning to her face. Raven hoped like crazy that the shopkeeper hadn't gotten anything new and dangerous since the last time she had been in his store.

As the two of them stepped into the small shop, they were greeted by a rather handsome young man sitting behind the cash register.

"Hello, may I help you ladies?" he asked.

"No, no," Raven replied. "I know what I'm looking for, and she's just looking around."

"Oh. Well, let me know if you need anything," the young man said, and turned back to reading a scroll that was spread open on his lap.

Raven studied him for a moment. He wore a black T-shirt and jeans, and his long, dark hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail that hung down between his shoulder blades. He was tall and skinny, and while it was difficult to tell for sure since he was sitting down, Raven figured he would be a little over six feet tall. His features were sharp, but the thing that stood out most about his face were his eyes—they were a seemingly bottomless black, with a glint of humour and intelligence to them.

The young man looked up, catching Raven staring at him.

"Is there something you wanted?" he asked. Raven thought quickly.

"Uh…I was just wondering where McPhearson was. This is his shop, right?" said Raven, remembering the balding, bespectacled old man who usually ran the shop.

"Oh, yes," said the young man. "I'm his new assistant. Started two weeks ago. My name's Drakon."

"Drakon? As in Greek for serpent?" Raven asked.

"Heh, yeah, nice catch," Drakon said with a smile. "I'm a bit of an amateur seer, and Mr. McPhearson has kind of taken me under his wing."

"Hmm…Well, McPhearson is a pretty good seer," said Raven, who found herself inexplicably drawn into conversation with Drakon. "You'll probably learn a lot of…"

Raven was interrupted by a shriek from Starfire. She and Drakon both looked up in shock to see Starfire staring wide-eyed at a large snake that was coiled up on one of the shelves. Starfire had disturbed its sleep, and it was hissing menacingly.

"Oy! Down, boy!" Drakon yelled at the snake. "Don't scare the customers, you bloody great worm!" The snake turned its head to look at Drakon, then settled back onto the shelf with a final contemptuous hiss. Starfire continued to stare at the snake in horror, not daring to move.

"It's alright, he won't hurt you," Drakon said to her. "That's just Slither, my familiar. He's really just a big baby once you get to know him." Starfire still didn't move, and continued to stare at the snake, which had gone back to sleep.

"Um…Miss Raven, do you think you could snap your friend out of…uh…whatever it is she's in?" Drakon said. "If Mr. McPhearson comes back and finds her like that I'm going to get in big trouble."

"Okay, okay," said Raven. She walked over to Starfire, leaned right up to her ear, and yelled: "_THERE'S A SALE AT MACY'S! HURRY!"_ Starfire nearly jumped out of her skin.

"OhnoImightmissitIsawsuchalovelylittledressthelasttimeIwasthereitwouldlooksoniceonmeanditfitperfectlyand…" Starfire paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "Oh. Thank you, Friend Raven. I needed that."

"No problem," said Raven with slight grin. Starfire took shopping _very_ seriously. Raven frowned as something occurred to her.

"Wait a minute," she said, turning back to Drakon. "How did you know my name?"

"What? Didn't your friend just say it?" he asked.

"Yeah, but only after you asked me _by name_ to wake her up," Raven replied.

"Oh. Hmm. That happens sometimes with my second sight," said Drakon. "Every once in a while it will put something in my mind that I couldn't possibly know otherwise, without me even realizing it. I thought I had gotten that under control, though."

"I see," said Raven. "Well, I should probably finish up before Starfire pisses your snake off again." She grabbed what she had come in for and put the items on the counter.

"Okay, so that's some bat oil, three lesser dragon teeth, and a mortar and pestle…" Drakon said as he entered the purchases into the register. "That will be fifteen dollars and eighty-six cents." Raven handed him the money, and he thanked her.

"Come on, Starfire, let's go," Raven said. Starfire put down a large glass jar full of eyeballs and followed Raven out of the shop. Drakon watched the two of them leave. Slither hissed from his shelf.

"Oh, don't worry, my friend," Drakon said. "I gave her just enough to get her suspicious." He smiled.

"She'll be back."

_-END CHAPTER TWO-_


	3. Getting Familiar with Familiars

(Disclaimer: I own neither the Teen Titans nor their likenesses. So if I drew them I'd be breaking copyright law too.)

_-CHAPTER THREE-_

Starfire trailed after Raven as she made her way through Magic Alley. She seemed to be moving with some definite purpose, but she was going opposite to the way they had been traveling until then—they had been going east along Magic Alley, but now Raven was moving west, retracing her steps.

"Friend Raven, where are we going?" asked Starfire. "I thought that we would be going in the opposite direction."

"Sorry, Starfire, I just need to check on something," Raven said. "There was something odd about that Drakon guy…Wait out here for a second."

Raven turned and stepped into a shop called "Familiars R Us", which seemed to be a pet store themed around magical familiars. However, this was actually a clever disguise—the owner of the store, one Rembrandt Schlick, had decided to go for the "Hide In Plain Sight" approach to concealing his store from the prying eyes of those not magically inclined. While he did do a brisk business in black cats, bats, toads, and other stereotypically magical animals, his main business was dealing in _real_ magical animals and familiars. Familiars were very much the trend amongst practitioners of magic, but Raven had never been one to buy into trends, and did not have a familiar. Schlick knew this, and never wasted an opportunity to pester her about getting one. This irritated her, but she knew that there was no better expert on familiars in the city, or even the state. Raven had left Starfire outside because she needed to speak to Schlick seriously, which would not be possible with the alien girl making bizarre Tamaranian baby noises at all the animals in the shop.

Schlick looked up as Raven entered the shop, and recognized her immediately.

"Ahh, Raven! Perhaps you are finally going to get yourself one of my familiars?" he said.

"You know I'm not interested, Schlick," said Raven. "Besides, I have Beast Boy around, so I should be fine."

"Are you sure? I just got a shipment of bats in yesterday. They're awful handy. Keep the bugs down, too."

"I'm just here for some information," said Raven. Schlick raised an eybrow.

"What kind of information?" he asked.

"What do you know about snake familiars?" said Raven.

"Hmm…Snakes, eh?" Schlick stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Well, they're rare, and very powerful. I don't deal with them at all, since there are some…_complications_ with transferring ownership of them."

"What do you mean?" Raven asked.

"Well, to put it simply, it can't be done," Schlick replied. "With most familiars, you can just alter their magical contract, but the snake contracts are…well, let's just say that snakes are kind of like nature's lawyers in this regard."

"So a snake familiar can't be given to a new owner?" said Raven.

"That's right. There are some legends that say that Griswold the Epicurean managed to give a snake familiar he had created to one of his apprentices, but that's never been confirmed, and nobody knows how he might have done it," Schlick said. "A snake familiar will always belong to its creator, and since they're pretty powerful as far as familiars go, second only to the dragon familiars, actually, only the most powerful sorcerors could ever have one. Even then, hardly anyone has that kind of skill anymore, even amongst the elite of the elite."

"So if someone has a snake familiar, then it's pretty much guaranteed that they're very powerful, and not, say, just an amateur seer," said Raven.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" said Schlick.

"Because I just met someone who had a snake familiar," said Raven. Schlick almost choked.

"What?" he said. "In Magic Alley? Are you sure it wasn't just a guy with a snake?" Raven shook her head.

"I could feel the connection between the two of them. It was definitely a familiar," she said. "He looked fairly young, but if he's as powerful as you say he would have to be, altering his appearance wouldn't be too difficult. He said his name was Drakon."

"Never heard of anyone by that name," said Schlick. "It could be an alias."

"Maybe. I'm going back to see if I can find him again," Raven said, and turned to leave the shop.

"Hey, wait!" Schlick said. "Bring me with you! I want to meet this guy!"

"Sorry, Schlick, this is _my_ project," Raven said with a grin as she stepped through the door.

"Can't you even tell me where this guy is?" Schlick called after her, but the door had already closed behind her. "At least buy something! Dammit!"

**OOO**

Starfire was waiting when Raven stepped back out into the street. She looked at her with an inquisitive expression, but Raven cut off her inevitable questions.

"Just follow me for now. I'll explain later, but I don't want to interrupt my train of thought," she said, and headed back up the street at a brisk walk. Starfire obliged her by not saying a word.

Raven stepped back into the shop that Drakon had been in, only to find that Mr. McPhearson was now sitting behind the cash register where Drakon had been. He looked up and squinted through his thick glasses.

"Ah, Miss Raven, how may I help you today?" he asked, as Raven approached the register.

"Sorry, Mr. McPhearson, but I'm here to see your assistant. Is he here?" she said. McPhearson looked puzzled.

"Assistant? I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, my dear," he said. "I don't have an assistant."

"What? But he was just here ten minutes ago!" said Raven. "His name was Drakon, he said he had been working for you for two weeks!"

"I saw him as well," Starfire piped up. "He had a snake. It was rather frightening."

"My dears, I was on my lunch break ten minutes ago," said McPhearson. "The shop was closed."

"What? But...but…" Raven sputtered.

"Are you sure you have the right shop?" asked McPhearson. Raven sagged a bit.

"Never mind, Mr. McPhearson," she said, turning to leave. "Have a nice day."

"Oh. You too, my dear," said McPhearson, obviously confused.

Starfire, also quite confused, followed Raven back out into the street. Raven stood for a moment, her shoulders hunched slightly, her face hidden by her hood, apparently lost in thought. Starfire decided to voice her confusion.

"I do not understand," she said. "How can someone have an assistant while not having one? How could this Drakon and his snake just disappear? Why would…"

"He lied," Raven whispered, interrupting Starfire.

"Pardon?"

"He lied," Raven repeated, louder this time. "He wasn't really McPhearson's assistant. He must have just broken into the shop and pretended he was his assistant. But why? Why would someone powerful enough to have a snake familiar want to pose as the assistant to a simple shopkeeper?"

Starfire had no answers, but that was just as well, because Raven then began to levitate herself back towards Titans Tower, still lost in thought. Starfire flew after her.

**OOO**

"Did you hear that, Slither?" said Drakon, partially cloaked in shadow on a nearby rooftop. His attire had changed to a black long-sleeved shirt and matching pants, with a long dark cloak, and his hair now hung loose. The snake was curled around his neck.

"Just a few small clues, things that most people wouldn't give a second thought to, and she went around and figured out what I did," he continued. "She has an excellent analytical mind—hanging around with that Robin boy must have stimulated her reasoning skills. Good." Drakon pulled back into the shadows, and while they were not particularly deep, they seemed to darken around him, and it was not long before he was completely invisible.

"She has passed the first test," he said, and then he was gone.

_-END CHAPTER THREE-_

**Author's Note:** The rewriting continues. Believe it or not, I collapsed two chapters into one here, and still it's only four pages long (in Word). Ahh, well. I've also hit a bit of a snag in the planning stages for chapters 9 and up, but now I'm kind of committed to this storyline, so I can't go rewriting things too much again. In the first version, I did this big thing where Raven ditches Starfire to check on all this stuff (not like Starfire did much anyway, but at least she was semi-present), then goes back to see Drakon, who _is_ there, and he gives her a book, eventually becomes her teacher, yadda yadda yadda. Interesting enough, I suppose, and it allowed me some criticism of the apparently Azarathian thing about suppressing the emotions (I haven't read any of the comic books, so I don't know if this is an Azarathian thing, or just something Raven has figured out for herself, or even the general nature of Azarath—I'm just making this shit up as I go). However, this version of the story no longer fits in with "Da Plan", so I scrapped that. Drakon is now a bit more sinister and mysterious, or at least remains so for longer, and his reasons for observing Raven are quite different. There will also be a bit of a tie-in with my last serious story, Duplomatic, although not really enough to call this a sequel or anything, and I might then go on to go through a whole series of related stories involving Azarath (which will, of course, contain my cockamamie ideas about Azarath, and not anything even remotely resembling actual knowledge of what the place is like in the comic books). This is "Da Plan" as it stands now, at least. It might change, but who knows?

**To My Reviewers:**

CloudsHalo: The updates will be coming more frequently now, as long as I have everything written up in time. I'm just starting on Chapter 4 right now, and hopefully it will be done in a day or two. Knowing me, though, I might write two or three chapters just tonight, then do nothing for another week as I run through my buffer. Writing orgy! But not in a sexual way, since that would be creepy! I mean, I'm creepy, anyone who's read Silly Villainy knows I'm creepy, but I'm not _that_ creepy. And I'm not changing anything to please readers, to address the romance issue. That isn't to say I don't care what people think, I just don't see it fitting in at all in this story, no matter who does or doesn't want it. Also, if I start taking requests for plot points, as it were, the shitstorm would never end, and would inevitably escalate to the point that someone else would be effectively writing my story for me ("Oooh, oooh! Now have Robin stand over there! A little to the left…perfect!"). About writing more than one story at a time: I never actually seriously work on more than one story at a time (I might do a little humour bit or two to relieve some writer's block, but that's it). I do, however, always have in mind the general ideas of what stories I'll be writing next, or I might write a chapter or two of one before deciding that I don't really like where it's going and move onto one of my other ideas while I rework it. That's basically what happened with Stalker: I wrote one chapter, decided that the story as I had it planned out was garbage, and moved on to Duplomatic. Fortunately, the subsequent rewriting I've done on Stalker has allowed me to use the chapter I'd already written. Holy sweet monkey Jesus this is a long response. Making up for a short chapter, anyone?

goddess-lil-angel: Well, as I told Mephisto2022, there will be more funny on the way. Of course, while I will find it funny, others might not, so I suppose I should really say that there will be more of my sick, twisted attempts at funny on the way. Hopefully that will suffice! And like I said above, I don't see how any romance will fit into this story, so the funny will be about it. Hopefully some dramatic tension of a non-romantic sort, though.

Man, only two responses to reviewers, and I've almost pushed this four-pager to six pages. I guess this will come in handy for that eight to ten page essay I'll have to write later in the term… Now, off to write Chapter 4! To the Bag Cave! _Kapweeng!_


	4. Nine Tenths of the Law

(Disclaimer: SLEEPING BAG NOT OWN! SLEEPING BAG SMASH PUNY LAWYERS!)

_-CHAPTER FOUR-_

The giant monitor in the living room of Titans Tower cast a hazy light in the darkness. Robin had lost track of time while trying to figure out the reason behind the recent demonic possession that had caused such damage to downtown Jump City, and it had long since gotten dark. He sat on the couch, his head in his hands, desperately wracking his brain for answers. On the screen, images of the attack in progress were arranged together, both still pictures and short video clips from the news that had been set to play in a loop. A close up still shot of the possessed man was placed alongside what looked like the man's drivers license photo—aside from the glowing red eyes and maniacal expression on his face in the former image, the man looked exactly the same in both. Underneath, there was a window of text, giving the man's name, address, occupation, and so on. His name was Randolph Giveny, of 405 Greendale Terrace, Jump City, no criminal record, and he was a chartered accountant working for Thompson, Thomson, and Tomson in downtown Jump City. Robin had found that Randolph had been at an office party for a coworker who had secured a big new account for the firm when the possession had occurred. Fortunately, nobody at the party had been seriously injured when the possessed Randolph had torn apart the office and smashed his way out of the building through a window—a _thirty-second floor_ window.

_No evidence of any black magic being performed at the party. I mean, they're _accountants_ for God's sake,_ thought Robin. _No evidence of any exposure to that kind of magic or demonic power of any sort shown in Randolph Giveny or any of the other party-goers. It just doesn't make any sense. Why did this happen?_

Robin looked up, and his eyes were automatically drawn to one of the looped video clips on the screen. It was about five seconds long, and very blurry, but it clearly showed him charging towards the possessed man, only to be casually tossed aside by the man's telekinesis. He watched, as if hypnotized, for nearly a full minute, seeing the scene play itself out over and over, amazed that the helpless figure in the video had been himself only a day before. Frustrated with his lack of progress, Robin slammed his fist on the table in front of him, scattering a few papers.

_Dammit! No clues, no leads, nothing! Why did this happen?_ he thought again. _Why such a normal man? A sorcerer or someone dabbling in magic, sure, but an accountant?_

Robin started as his thoughts were interrupted by the alarm. Ignoring the flashing red lights, Robin brought the cause of the alarm up on the screen. His mouth dropped open. The image on the screen showed a young woman in Jump City's Chinatown, floating at least twenty feet above the ground. Her eyes glowed red.

_Oh, no,_ he thought. _Not another one._

**OOO**

It was only twenty minutes after this latest possession occurred that the Titans arrived on the scene, but already three city blocks were in shambles, and the possessed woman was working on a fourth.

"Alright. Raven, how long did you say your banishment spell took to prepare?" said Robin.

"No more than a few minutes," Raven said.

"Right, get on that as quickly as you can," Robin said. Raven nodded and began to chant, while Robin turned to the other Titans.

"We need to buy time, that's it," he said. "I don't want any heroics, just keep her occupied, and watch out for her telekinesis. If anyone gets caught, everyone else work to break the demon's concentration. Alright?" The Titans nodded.

"Good," Robin said. "Titans! _GO!_"

As one, the Titans leaped at the possessed woman, leaving Raven several hundred feet behind to complete her spell. The woman laughed as she caught sight of the Titans, deflecting their initial attack with a telekinetic shield. It looked the same as the one used by the last demon they had fought—a translucent black, like Raven's powers, but with a blood red edge instead of just white.

"This is what this city sends to defend itself?" the woman said. "Five children? Ha! Pathetic!"

"Okay, so she obviously has more to say then the last guy," said Cyborg, firing his sonic cannon.

"Don't let her distract you," called Robin over the sound of several of his explosive discs detonating against the demon's shield. "Stay focused!"

"Focused?" the demon said. "On what? What can you ever hope to achieve against me, when none of your attacks have even come close to me?" A thoughtful look crossed her face, even while she held off a barrage of starbolts and a green rhinoceros.

"'The last guy', you say? Hmmm…" the demon wondered aloud. "So, you have faced one such as I before. How did you defeat this one? Tell me!"

The demon lashed out with her telekinesis, scattering the Titans and grabbing Starfire. Starfire screamed, and unleashed a nearly continuous stream of starbolts at her attacker, aiming first at the tendril of power connecting her to the possessed woman, then at the woman herself.

"No! Starfire!" Robin screamed. He recovered from the demon's telekinetic attack and launched himself back into the fight.

"Cyborg, Beast Boy! Frontal assault, _NOW!_" Robin called. He threw a handful of explosive discs at the demon as he rocketed past, rolling as he hit the ground behind her. Cyborg fired several long blasts from his sonic cannon, and Beast Boy slammed against the demon's shield in the form of a triceratops. For her part, Starfire kept launching starbolts at a furious pace, despite the vice-like pressure of the demon's telekinetic hold on her.

_Excellent,_ thought Robin. _They're all attacking from the front, putting all of the demon's attention there. Now, if I'm right…_

Robin pushed off of a wall behind the demon, extending his staff in mid-air and slamming it into the demon's back. She shrieked in pain and dropped to the ground, and her momentary loss of concentration caused her shield to drop. The full force of the Titans attacks hit her: Cyborg's sonic cannon, Starfire's starbolts, a Tyrannosaurus-formed Beast Boy's tail, and even another few of Robin's explosives that he threw just as he passed. The demon was launched backwards through the front of a convenience store, which collapsed on top of her. In the silence that followed, the Titans approached the pile of rubble.

"Did we get her?" asked Beast Boy. He stared at the destroyed store. "Dude! We got her!"

"Wait, does that mean we killed the demon's human host, too?" asked Cyborg. Starfire gasped.

"She isn't dead," said Robin. As if on cue, the pile of rubble shifted, then was violently tossed away in all directions as the demon stood up, pelting the Titans with pieces of brick and other building materials.

"HA! Very good, little ones," the demon called. It cackled viciously—it was apparently unharmed. "Focusing most of your attacks to the front in order to draw power away from my rear defense. A brilliant feint. Let me guess—Robin was behind that, yes?"

"How do you know my name?" asked Robin.

"Heh. I hadn't realized that I had a young general on my hands," the demon continued, ignoring his question. "That's how she thinks of you, you know: a general, a military leader of sorts. Despite her naïve, peaceful leanings, she really is quite indoctrinated in her people's warrior culture."

"What do you mean, 'that's how she…'" Robin began, but then realization dawned and he stared at Starfire. Her mouth was hanging open in disbelief.

"Yes, yes, little ones, I can read minds," the demon said, a cruel smile on her face. "I learned quite a bit while inside the alien's head—your strengths, your weaknesses, which demon you fought before me. By the way, he was quite feeble, compared to my power. I am something of a general myself, you see, and if that is so, then by that analogy he would be the soldier cleaning out the latrines. I just thought you should know that."

"You're bluffing," said Robin.

"Maybe," said the demon with a shrug. "But I also found out your little plan to defeat me. Are you willing to take the risk of calling my bluff now?" She glanced pointedly at Raven, still several hundred feet away, and still only about halfway through completing her spell.

"Entering another's mind takes a fair amount of my power, so by doing so I risked weakening my defenses, which, as it turns out, you inadvertently took advantage of," the demon continued. "But your breach of my defenses did nothing, as you can plainly see, and now I am armed with intimate knowledge of your plans. Calculated risk leads to reward—any good general should know that, Robin."

"You're still bluffing," said Robin. He smiled. "You're trying to destabilize us so that we're easier to deal with. That means you must be weakened." The demon chuckled.

"Really, Robin, your grasp of strategy is hardly complete," she said. "A good general _always_ destabilizes the opponent prior to attacking, even when attacking with overwhelming force and there is little chance of defeat." The demon smiled sadistically, and balls of dark power formed in her hands. The same power radiated from her eyes, and crackled around her like lightning.

"Let us consider this a part of your education," the demon said, and darkness erupted from her.

The Titans were scattered like leaves, thrown in all directions by the explosion of telekinetic power. Beast Boy was the first to recover, using his monkey form's agility to halt his uncontrolled movement, but the demon appeared behind him, seemingly out of nowhere, and knocked him unconscious before he could change into another form to attack. He resumed his human form as he fell.

Seeing his friend hurt by the demon, Cyborg charged her in order to exact revenge, but the demon ducked easily under his punch, and rose back up again with an open palm against his chest. Dark power flashed in her hand, and Cyborg was thrown back and up, crashing through two buildings before coming to a stop halfway through a tenth floor office in a nearby skyscraper. His mechanical components sparked for a second or two, and then he powered down, too heavily damaged to do anything else.

Starfire then attacked the demon, sending a stream of starbolts her way, but the demon just disappeared. Starfire looked around frantically, trying to locate the demon.

"Up here, alien!" called the demon, and Starfire looked up to see her floating ten feet above her head. A stream of dark power rushed from the demon's hands, and Starfire was driven straight down with enough force to smash her through the pavement and into the subway tunnel below, where she made a sizeable dent and lay still.

Robin screamed wordlessly, striking straight down at the demon with his staff from behind, but she simply disappeared again. Robin hit the ground and rolled, coming back to his feet in a ready stance, trying to find where the demon had gone.

"Over here!" said the demon, striking from his blind spot and sending him reeling. As Robin regained his footing, the demon disappeared again.

"No, here!" said the demon, again striking from Robin's blind spot.

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

Robin stumbled and fell to his knees.

_Shit!_ he thought. _She's totally changed her fighting style! I can't keep up with her!_

The demon reappeared ten feet away, and laughed.

"Divide and conquer, eh, little general?" she said, and laughed again.

_She's right. After scattering us, she was able to take us on one at a time, and we didn't stand a chance,_ Robin thought. _She's just playing with me now. I have to take this fight to her if I want to have any chance of beating her._

He surged to his feet and charged the demon, swinging his staff in a series of short but deadly arcs. The demon fell back, still laughing, telekinetically blocking every attack.

"You're giving me everything you have, but you can't even touch me," said the demon during a lull in Robin's assault. "Does this remind you of someone you know?" For a moment, Robin's mind was filled with images of Slade.

"Dammit, get out of my head!" he yelled, and stepped up the pace of his attacks. The demon laughed again, and continued to block every strike. Just as Robin felt his second wind begin to fade, the demon caught hold of his staff and pulled him in. She placed her palm against his chest, and Robin saw her eyes flash with dark power before he was thrown backwards to slam into a brick wall. He sank to the ground, fighting unconsciousness—it was a fight he was losing.

"Do you see now, Robin, my little general?" asked the demon with mock sweetness as she walked towards where he was slumped against the wall. "You never stood a chance against me."

Robin tried to say something, but the pain in his ribs prevented him from even breathing deeply.

_Some of them must be broken,_ he thought. The pain seemed to dull, and his vision began to blur.

"And now, little general, I am going to kill your friend," said the demon, levitating a piece of brick and sending it flying into the side of Robin's head. Robin fell to the ground, and knew no more.

**OOO**

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

Raven was still chanting, almost done focusing her power into the banishment spell. She knew she had to hurry—her friends were counting on her.

"Your friends, girl? Your friends have already been defeated," said a voice. It penetrated through Raven's trance, dragging her back up into consciousness. Coming to full awareness, Raven felt a presence in her mind that had gone unnoticed while she had been concentrating on the spell. She looked up, and saw the possessed woman sitting demurely on a pile of rubble about a dozen feet away.

"What did you say?" asked Raven as she tried to dislodge the demon's presence in her mind.

"I said, girl, that your friends have already been defeated," the demon said with a smile. "Oh, and I doubt you'll be able to get me out of your head, Raven dear. Incomplete spells, especially ones as powerful as the one you were attempting, can be such a drain, can't they?"

Raven narrowed her eyes. The demon was right—until she had either completed and used the spell, or dispelled it, much of her power would remain locked up inside it. She doubted that the demon would give her the chance to do either, so she was stuck in a weakened state and would most likely be unable to fight effectively. She cursed inwardly, and the demon smiled.

"My, my. Where did such a nice little girl learn such naughty words?" the demon asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Raven cursed again—she had momentarily forgotten about the demon's presence in her mind. The demon laughed, and hopped off her perch on the pile of rubble. Raven decided that discretion would be the better part of valour for now, and tried to run, but the demon telekinetically lifted her up off the ground.

"Now, now, Raven, we can't have you escaping, now can we? Bad little girls need to be punished," the demon said, and slammed Raven into the ground. "Especially bad little girls who don't behave around their betters." The demon picked Raven up again with her telekinesis and threw her against a nearby wall. Raven grunted with pain, but said nothing.

"Trying to regain your concentration, Raven dear?" asked the demon as she walked casually over to where Raven lay. She grabbed Raven's chin roughly, and held her face close to her own.

"Sorry, but that won't be happening," the demon continued. "It would be very troublesome indeed if you were to complete that spell." She looked to her right to see a large chunk of concrete floating about ten feet away, encased in black energy.

"Oh, but what's this? That looks very heavy, Raven. Maybe I should carry that for you," the demon said, smiling as her own power took control of the chunk of concrete. She backed away and flung the concrete at Raven, who was only barely able to dodge. Giving up on large objects, Raven used her weakened powers to hurl a collection of broken shards of glass at the demon, but they were caught easily. The demon smiled again, and fired the glass shards back at Raven, cutting her in several places but not doing any major damage.

_She's just playing with me,_ Raven thought.

"Yes, that's right," said the demon, obviously having heard this thought as well. "It would be no fun to just kill you. But then again…" The demon grinned sadistically, and collected dark power in her hands, but her plans were disrupted by a blast of what looked like bluish-white fire coming from behind her.

Slightly singed, but otherwise unharmed, the demon got back to her feet.

"Who _dares_…?" she growled, turning to see a dark haired young man standing a little ways behind her, his hand extended and smoking a little. It was Drakon.

"Leave her alone," he said.

"Are you going to make me?"

"Maybe."

The demon looked down at the now exhausted Raven, thought for a moment, then pulled several feet of metal piping up out of the ground to bend around her.

"Don't move. I'll be right back," she said, then snarled and launched herself at Drakon.

Drakon sidestepped the demon's initial rush with ease, reaching out as she passed. The demon erected a telekinetic shield, but Drakon's hand somehow passed right through it as though it wasn't even there, and he attached what looked like a small piece of paper to the demon's forehead. Symbols written on the paper glowed for a moment, as though they were on fire, and the demon screamed and fell to her knees. She clawed at the piece of paper, but it stayed firmly stuck to her forehead. After a few seconds, the possessed woman collapsed, and only then did the paper detach.

Drakon smiled to himself with satisfaction, and made his way to where Raven lay. He traced a complex symbol in the air with the index and middle fingers of his left hand, and the pipes bent around Raven's body unwound themselves. Raven sat up and rubbed the back of her head, still exhausted, but now at least able to move again. She looked up at Drakon.

"You're the guy from the shop earlier today…Drakon?" Raven said. Drakon smiled and nodded. Raven looked over at the unconscious woman.

"How the hell did you do that?" she asked.

"Banishment sutra," said Drakon as he helped Raven to her feet. "They take a bit of effort to prepare, but they're handy in a pinch when you're fighting demons. Against demons, Buddhist stuff is the most useful, I always say." Drakon held out a handful of sutras to Raven.

"Want some?" he asked. "You might be fighting a lot more demons over the next little while. You should be able to figure out how to make more with a simple magical probe of one of the sutras, just in case you run out of them." Raven reached out hesitantly to take the sutras, eyeing Drakon with suspicion the whole time.

"Who are you, and why are you helping me?" she asked.

"Heh. Cutting right to the questions I'm not supposed to answer, eh?" Drakon said. "I like that." He turned and began to walk away. Raven was too exhausted to chase after him, and turned away to wallow in her frustration.

"Your friends aren't too badly hurt, but they should still get some medical attention," Drakon called over his shoulder. "Your powers should regenerate in a few minutes—if you put that demonic heritage of yours to good use, you should be able to heal them up in no time at all, Raven of Azarath."

Raven's eyes widened in shock, and she turned to ask how he knew about the workings of her powers and her heritage, but he had disappeared. After a few seconds of frantically trying to see where he was hiding, she gave up and picked her way through the rubble to find her friends, chanting as she did so, both to focus on dispelling her incomplete banishment spell, and to rid herself of the nagging questions that filled her mind.

**OOO**

Drakon watched Raven from the shadows atop a nearby building as she healed the other Titans. He could still sense her confusion, but she was doing an admirable job of suppressing it in order to deal with the problem at hand. He smiled.

Slither detached himself from one of the lower shadows and wound his way up his master's leg, his head appearing over Drakon's shoulder.

"Oh, so there you are, you little sneak," Drakon said. "And where have you been?" Slither hissed irritably, indicating that he had things to do, but Drakon ignored him.

"Never mind, I didn't really need you here anyways," he said. "The Titans and Raven had already worn the demon down a fair bit, so it wasn't too difficult to finish it off." Slither hissed again.

"Oh, the sutras? Oh, don't worry about that," Drakon said as he melted back into the shadows. "Let's just see what she does with them."

_-END CHAPTER FOUR-_

**Author's Note:** So that was a fair bit longer. Odd, because I experienced a bit of writer's block right around when Robin lays out the battle plan ("I don't want any heroics."). Fight scenes are kind of a problem for me, possibly just because I tend to think very cinematically, and it's hard to effectively describe what would be a good movie fight in text. I'm fairly happy with the way this fight scene turned out, though. I was able to avoid the whole "powerful supervillain stick everybody" scenario, which can lead to very awkward scenes, by having the demon follow some pretty basic strategy—divide and conquer. As I said, I think it worked out well, but I would, of course, be happy to hear any suggestions for improving on it. I also really liked playing around with the character of the demon in this chapter. The one that appeared in Chapter 1 was basically just an enraged madman who didn't say too much, but this one had a hell of a lot to say (in case you hadn't noticed). I managed to put in some of my ideas regarding good tactics, an interest I have as an amateur fencer and martial artist. I hope that didn't seem too boring—I tried to mix it in with what the demon was actually doing to alleviate some of the dryness of discussing good combat tactics at a fairly abstract level. If you're interested at all in stuff like that, read Sun Tzu's Art of War. Pretty much anything you need to know about good tactics is in there, although sometimes it takes some interpretation to apply properly. Anyway, this demon's character as basically a psychotic genius is one that I find very interesting, for whatever reason, and I had a lot of fun writing her. In case there is any confusion over this, while the demon is really only _possessing_ a female body, and may in fact be male (or asexual or something), I refer to it as 'her' because…well, there are probably several rationalizations I could give you that would all make sense, but the fact of the matter is that it just seemed the most natural thing to do as I was writing it. As I was writing, the demon just seemed to _be_ female for some reason. Apply whatever esoteric psychoanalysis you want to that. I also sometimes call the possessed woman just "the demon" to save space and for the purposes of the flow of the writing. Saying "the possessed woman" all the time just seems stuffy.

**To My Reviewers:**

nevermoretheraven: My main appreciation of Robin is as a tactician, as might be apparent from this chapter's emphasis on him as a "general", although he has certainly shown the ability to beat the living snot out of virtually everything that comes his way, aside from Slade, in the TV show (including the other Titans). Still, my main focus in this story is on Raven, so naturally the other Titans will kind of get left by the wayside a bit. I hope my future chapters won't disappoint!

CloudsHalo: Everyone works at different speeds, and has different methods. I tend to not write for a long time, then get bitten by the writing bug and write a ton over only a few days, then lose my edge. If I keep writing after that, I tend to put out crap. I think I'm running into that with my work on Chapter 5, but I'll try to get into shape in time to be posted. As much as I like posting my best work, I also like posting reasonably regularly, so a balance has to be struck. As for the creepiness, I actually got a few reviews for Silly Villainy saying stuff like "You're scaring me, buddy." Ah, well. If people can't appreciate my warped sense of humour, that's not my fault. They just need to get themselves a few more complexes. Complexes are always useful—it is every parent's duty to make sure that their children get them. As for what Drakon is really up to, and who he really is, that should be going into Chapter 7, if all goes to plan. It looks like I might be squishing Chapters 5 and 6 together into one, like I did with Chapter 3 and what I had planned for Chapter 4, so what I planned for Chapter 7 might actually be in Chapter 6. I guess that makes sense. Ugh. Such an awkward sentence. From what I've done on Chapter 5 so far, though, it looks like it might be another "No Action, Minimal Plot Advancement" chapter. There will be some humour, though. I hope that will make up for it.


	5. Who Ya Gonna Call?

(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. I also don't own the Ghostbusters theme song, but hey, neither did they. Look it up.)

_-CHAPTER FIVE-_

It had been about three days since the Titans had been nearly defeated at the hands of a particularly powerful demon. Fortunately, Raven had been able to heal them, but things had still not exactly returned to normal. More demonic possessions had occurred, at a rate of one or two a day, but they were beginning to become more frequent. They also weren't just happening to people—pets, vehicles, and even totally inanimate objects had all been possessed as well. However, none of these more recent possessions had been anywhere near as powerful as the one that nearly defeated them, or even as powerful as the very first one the Titans had encountered. This fact, combined with the sutras Raven had acquired, had made these recent possessions much easier to deal with.

The Titans were just finishing exorcising a particularly recalcitrant mailbox when Robin finally asked the question that Raven had been dreading.

"So, Raven, where did you say you got these sutra things again?"

Raven had been trying to come up with some answer that he would accept ever since she had received the sutras from Drakon—she doubted that Robin would appreciate that they had been using something provided by someone they knew virtually nothing about. Raven had eventually settled on a lie that she thought she could get away with, but still she hesitated. Robin was an experienced detective, and virtually a human lie detector. He sometimes even put her empathy to shame. Still, Raven hardened her resolve and gave him her answer.

"I made them," she said, avoiding eye contact with Robin. "It was something I found in one of my books that I thought might work, but I hadn't tested them yet. That's why I didn't use them earlier."

Raven snuck a quick glance at Robin. He didn't look convinced—even her momentary hesitation, as well as her refusal to look him in the eyes, had already told him that she was lying. However, he did not press her further. He had worked with Raven for several years now, and trusted her. If she wanted to keep the source of the sutras a secret for now, then he left that to her judgment. Besides, Beast Boy piped up before Robin could ask her any more questions.

"Who cares where she got them?" Beast Boy said. "All I need to know is that these things kick demonically-possessed ass!" The day before, he had managed to bring down a possessed bicycle that had evaded all of the other Titans, and had been in unusually high spirits, even for Beast Boy, ever since.

"Right, so where to next?" asked Cyborg, already heading towards the T-Car. "Home? Or is there another demonic nasty we have to take care of?"

"Just one more reported possession today," said Robin. "It's nothing serious, just a telephone pole that makes weird noises whenever someone walks by, but I'd like to take care of it before we go home."

"Just as long as it is not another demonic talking kitten I shall be fine," said Starfire. She shuddered at the memory. It had been so cute, yet so very, very evil—she would be having nightmares for weeks.

"Awesome! Let's go kick some pole!" said Beast Boy as he jumped into his usual spot in the back seat of the T-Car. "Teen Titans to the rescue!"

The other Titans piled into the car, and at Robin's direction Cyborg headed towards Jump City's eastern suburbs. It wasn't a serious threat, so Cyborg drove within the speed limit, since kicking in the afterburner would just needlessly disrupt traffic, not to mention deplete the T-Car's precious (and expensive) supply of the "special" fuel that Cyborg had managed to acquire from Boeing. The upshot of all this was that the trip, which the T-Car could have made in less than a minute and a half at full speed, took nearly twenty minutes. This was plenty of time to get very, very bored, especially if you are hyperactive and named Beast Boy.

It started innocently enough. Beast Boy had just asked a simple question.

"Hey, guys, isn't this kind of like Ghostbusters?" he said. "You know, all the going around, beating up on ghosts and stuff, except it's demons, not ghosts. Still, supernatural, right?" The other Titans just ignored him. Starfire was going to say something, but Raven caught her eye and just shook her head, as if to say: 'Don't encourage him.' Unfortunately, Beast Boy seldom needed encouragement.

"Hey, Raven, have you ever seen Ghostbusters? Either of the movies?" he asked. Raven didn't move a muscle. Any response would be seen as tacit agreement to taking part in the conversation, and then it would never end.

"How about the cartoon? Man, that cartoon was cool. But then, hey, all cartoons are cool, right? Except maybe that Felix the Cat movie." Again, Raven did not respond, so Beast Boy decided to change targets.

"Hey, Robin, can we get some of those wicked cool Ghostbusters backpacks, and those ray gun thingies?" Beast Boy asked. "I mean, I know we have these suplex things, but you have to admit we'd look pretty boss with the backpacks on."

"It's 'sutras'," said Raven, and she immediately regretted it. Correcting Beast Boy had become an involuntary reaction for her, and she could have sworn that Beast Boy had just purposefully used it against her.

"Hey, thanks for joining the conversation, Raven!" he said, grinning from ear to pointed ear. "Hey, what do you think about this idea: in the spirit of all this ghost hunting stuff, or demon, or whatever, let's change our theme song!"

"We have a theme song?" asked Raven. She couldn't pull out now, she knew, so she just decided to play along until Beast Boy got bored.

"Yeah, some Japanese chicks sang it, I think. But never mind that now, how do you like this?" Beast Boy said, and took a deep breath.

_Oh, no,_ thought everyone in the car, aside from Starfire, who thought _Ooh, singing!_

"If there's something strange…in your neighbourhood…who ya gonna call? Teen Titans!" Beast Boy sang. Raven gave him a thump on the back of the head with her powers, causing Beast Boy's head to snap forward and bounce off the back of Cyborg's seat.

"Ow! That hurt!" Beast Boy said, and sulked. Raven smiled, satisfied that she had stopped that thoroughly irritating conversation. Playing along a bit was one thing, but enduring Beast Boy's singing? That just wasn't going to happen.

The Titans drove in silence for a few minutes. Then the three boys looked at each other, grinned idiotically, and burst into full song, with Cyborg taking the bass part, Robin handling the rhythm, and Beast Boy once again coming in on the vocals.

"If there's something weird…and it don't look good…who ya gonna call? Teen Titans! Naaa na naaa na naaaaaa na na na na na nanana, I ain't afraid of no ghost! Err…Demon!"

Raven hid her face in her hands and groaned. They would be doing this for a while.

"Is this some kind of demon hunting tradition on Earth?" asked Starfire. "May I join?" Raven groaned again.

"Please, if there is a God, please let it stop," she muttered, knowing full well that it wouldn't. In fact, it continued all the way to their destination, and then all the way back to Titans Tower.

"Nana nana nana! Nanananana na! Nana nana nana! Nananana nana na!"

**OOO**

Later that night, the Titans were all sitting in the living room. Robin had been unable to make any progress in determining any reason for the possessions; normally he would have just cloistered himself away in his room to work obsessively on the case night and day, but he had begun to realize that this was a bad thing, and had started to try to stop. So, he had finally relented and asked his teammates if they had any theories. He brought several dozen images and pieces of text about all the possessions so far up on the main screen, and they all sat for a minute or two staring at it in silence. Eventually, Robin got up and stood in front of the screen to address the other Titans.

"So, any thoughts?" he said.

"I hate to bring this up, but could it be Slade?" asked Cyborg.

"I thought about that," Robin responded. "Slade has shown some kind of supernatural abilities before, when he created that fire monster, but this kind of random, unfocused chaos just isn't his style."

"Yeah, the dude's pretty goal-oriented," said Beast Boy with a nervous chuckle. Nobody else laughed. Cyborg looked thoughtful for a moment, then spoke again.

"Is all this really supernatural?" he said. "I mean, is that the only explanation? Couldn't it be some kind of scientific phenomenon? For instance, short-wave electromagnetic radiation might…"

"No," Raven said simply. "These _are_ demons. If it was something else causing this, I would be able to tell." Cyborg looked crestfallen, and bent his head in thought once again.

"On my planet, such occurrences would be called talagran glumfnar, and only a fully ordained Glumfnik would be able to cause them," said Starfire. The others just stared at her, and she grinned nervously. "Then again, I doubt that anyone on Earth has been ordained as a Glumfnik."

"Oookay," said Cyborg. Suddenly, Beast Boy leapt up off the couch, a look of triumph on his face.

"Guys! I've got it!" he said.

"Oh, boy, this should be good," said Raven. Beast Boy ignored her.

"It must be some kind of unholy alliance between Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, and Billy Graham!" he said.

"Pure genius," said Raven, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Okay, fine, how about this: it's evil, yet tragic and sexy, vampires!" Beast Boy continued. "No? What about microscopic devil monkeys?"

"Okay, _that's_ just insane," said Cyborg.

"Well, then perhaps it could be…_Plan 9!_" said Beast Boy.

"From outer space?" asked Robin.

"The same!" Beast Boy responded. The others looked at each other incredulously. Cyborg twirled one finger around his ear, and pointed the other one at Beast Boy.

"Okay, okay, how about this?" said Beast Boy, now determined to prove himself. "A planetary alignment that comes only once every six thousand years has weakened the very fabric of reality, leading to an increase in alien abductions and shadow government activity as both try to capitalize on the situation. Then, the Masons used voodoo on the rulers of Atlantis, thus resulting in the release of the dreaded Atlantean robot pirates and zombie ninjas. Or maybe it was zombie pirates and robot ninjas…"

The Titans stared, wide-eyed, at Beast Boy. His theories had always been crazy, but this one topped them all by a long shot.

"Or, uhhh…maybe it's Jason Todd," Beast Boy said.

"Okay, Beast Boy, you're officially cut off," said Robin.

"Oh, come on! Those were some good theories!" Beast Boy complained.

"I think I might have something," Raven said quietly.

"I mean, zombie ninjas? Voodoo? That's _gold_, man!" Beast Boy said.

"No, Beast Boy, that's bullsh…wait, what did you just say, Raven?" Robin said. Raven winced. She had hoped he hadn't heard her, so she wouldn't have to tell him about Drakon.

"Well, um, there's this guy that seems to be watching me," Raven said. "I think he's a sorcerer of some sort, but I'm not sure. He says his name is Drakon. Anyway, I don't know why he's interested in me, or why he's helped us, but…"

"Wait, helped us? How?" asked Robin. Raven sagged. Once again, Robin had managed to pick up on precisely what she had hoped that he wouldn't.

"He was the one who gave me the sutras," Raven said, avoiding Robin's gaze. "I saw him use one, so it wasn't like they were untested, and I checked them to make sure they were real, and…"

"Raven! It's okay," Robin interrupted. "It all worked out fine, so don't worry about it."

_Wait, Robin's consoling me? Why am I panicking like this? I hate panicking!_ thought Raven. _Is all this really affecting me this much?_ She sighed and took a deep breath before continuing.

"So, like I said, I don't know who he is, or why he's so interested in me, but he seems to know a lot about me," she said. "Stuff I haven't told anyone aside from you guys."

"Okay, so what do you think this has to do with the possessions?" said Robin.

"Well, I first saw him just after the first possession, and he seemed to know exactly how to beat the demons…" Raven began, but was interrupted again, this time by Starfire.

"Oh, Drakon…is that the scary snake man?" she asked.

"Whoa, whoa! Back up there! Snake man?" said Cyborg. Raven sighed.

"He just has a snake. It's his familiar," she said. "And yes, Starfire, that's him."

"Starfire, you know who Raven is talking about?" said Robin.

"Oh, yes. Raven and I saw him when we went to shop for magical things," said Starfire. "We also saw Harry Potter!"

"_No, we didn't_," Raven said, then turned back to Robin. "Anyway, if he's so interested in me, this sorcerer might be sending the demons as a way of testing me."

"What for?" asked Robin. Again, Raven sighed.

"I don't know," she said. "I don't even know for sure if it really _is_ him sending the demons. I just figured you guys should know about this." Robin nodded.

_In other words, keeping it secret was beginning to bother her,_ he thought.

"Thank you, Raven. I'll keep it in mind," he said out loud. "Anyone else have anything to add?" The other Titans all shook their heads.

"Right, then. Let's sleep on it, and see if anything presents itself in the morning," Robin said. The others agreed, and they all went to their rooms and dreamed of demons.

Except for Beast Boy. He dreamed about hordes of girls flocking around him, just like every other night.

_-END CHAPTER FIVE-_

**Author's Note:** Hmmm…so, yeah, I get a weird feeling from this chapter. It just doesn't sit too well with me for some reason. I like the stuff in the car, and all that, and Beast Boy's bizarre theories, but the ending dialogue is just awful. The problem is, I can't think of how to fix it while still keeping everything I want in there. Then again, it's 2:00 AM as I'm writing this, so that might contribute to that just a wee bit. I would have much rather done the first part of this scene as a video montage of the Titans exorcizing various demonically possessed people, animals, and things to the Ghostbusters theme song, or possibly a rendition of it sung slightly flat by Puffy AmiYumi (the "Japanese chicks" that Beast Boy mentioned), but I can't very well do that in text. That still wouldn't have saved the final dialogue, though. Getting some really, _really_ good-looking actresses to play Raven and Starfire wouldn't even save _that_ dialogue. Nudity might help, but only a bit. (Edit: Okay, I've gone over the ending dialogue again at the bright and early hour of 7:30 PM. I've changed a few things, and I think it holds together much better now. I still don't like the sudden ending, but it's just a chapter ending, right?)

While I remember, apologies to Brian Clevinger—I kind of stole the Plan 9 line from 8-bit Theatre. Well, maybe not stole. Borrowed indefinitely. There we go. Thief would be proud.

I realize that this was another chapter that didn't really do much for the story. It seems like every chapter is like this. Maybe I've been watching too much anime (read: "filler") lately. I'm trying to fix it, honest. Is it at least a bit suspenseful? No? Crap. There's humour, at least.

Just so you all know, I collapsed another two chapters into this one. I had planned to have the car scene separate from the theorizing scene, but they were both so short that I decided to just stick them together.

**To My Reviewers:**

CloudsHalo: I'm glad you liked the fight scene. Either I got lucky, or I'm finally starting to get some idea of how to get the right flow out of fight scenes in text. As I've said before, I tend to think cinematically, and while that can help with some aspects of writing, it can be over-applied, leading to clunky narration, especially in action-oriented scenes. Also, my background as a fencer and martial artist means I think about fights in a very technical way, and I'm also not really interested in fights as they appear in most fiction, since they have to be relatively simple if the narration is to have any semblance of natural flow to it. There's just so much going on underneath every motion in a fight, and once you have even a bit of that deep understanding it becomes difficult to simplify things enough to make it good reading. Accidentally using technical terms can make things even worse (like saying "chin na", or some other Anglicized Chinese terms, instead of just saying "joint lock"—not sure about the spelling of chin na, for anyone who knows what I'm talking about). Also, there are some techniques and concepts that don't really have any nice, easy-to-use, non-technical names that I know of, like "fa jing" (again, spelling is an issue—I'm just going by how I've heard it pronounced), which is a whole body energy release, or "pris-de-ferre" (spelling again), a technique from fencing where you attack while still maintaining full contact with your opponent's blade. Also concepts like counter-time, broken time, and some of the other basics of timing and distance can be tricky to put in while still keeping it readable…okay, so this is a bit of an unnecessary digression. Blah, blah, I'm a fencing geek, blah, blah. Oh, and the lack of description for the demonically possessed woman was just an accident, but I'm glad it worked out okay.

nevermoretheraven: I'm glad I haven't disappointed you so far. I still have time, though, even if this chapter didn't do it. Then again, you might be like me, and be one of those people who stick with something when it gets crappy and stupid just because you hope it'll get better again (mumble mumble…stupid Naruto flashbacks…mumble).

GS Dragono: I hope I'll be able to keep updating regularly, as I like to do. I've hit a slump over the last few days; I don't know why this is, but hopefully I'll get it fixed soon. Oddly enough, it was during this slump that I figured out where I'm going in later chapters. I had a bit of an idea, but it seemed to end things up way to quickly. My new plan draws things out a little better, I think. I'll see how it goes. And hopefully, you will, too.

staticsponge123: Wow. Best you've ever read, huh? Awesome. I'll try to keep it up. I like the name, by the way. Sponges are cool. I want to sit at the bottom of the ocean and filter my food out of the water, too. Maybe not live in a pineapple, though. God, why did I have to bring that up?


	6. Come Alone

(Disclaimer: No, I don't own them. And at the rate I'm going, I never will.)

_-CHAPTER SIX-_

The following day was filled with what had become routine for the Titans over the past few days. A couple of possessions, a mugging that they just happened across, and watching television reruns in between. Raven excused herself from the table early after dinner, saying that she had to meditate, but it would be hours before she would have to start her nightly meditation. She really just wanted to break the monotony of the day by listening to some music in her room. The Titans probably would have understood, since they were just as bored as her, but there was no way Raven was going to admit to doing something as _normal_ as lying on her bed listening to music. She had a reputation to keep up.

As Raven approached her door, she noticed a small piece of paper taped to it. She pulled it off, and unfolded it to reveal a short note written in spidery and nearly illegible handwriting.

_There will be another possession tonight, in one of the abandoned warehouses on the docks. Come alone._

Raven narrowed her eyes. She didn't recognize the handwriting, but something about the note just seemed to say "Drakon".

_How did he get in here without setting off the alarms?_ Raven thought. _Does this suggest that he's the one summoning the demons? And if he's this powerful, why in the Nine Hells did he use Scotch tape to put this note on my door?_

She scowled and crumpled the paper in one hand in a failed attempt to vent some frustration. She opened her door and was about to step into her room when she was interrupted by the alarm.

_Oh, what now?_

**OOO**

"It's another possession," said Robin as Raven stepped back into the living room. He was briefing the other Titans. Raven glanced at the main screen, noticing that the coordinates for the possession placed it right at the docks.

_It could just be coincidence,_ she thought. _Or it could be a trap. But this might give me more information about the possessions and Drakon—can I take the risk of ignoring it?_

"It's close, so we should be able to take care of it quickly," Robin continued.

"I'll handle it," Raven said, still staring at the screen.

"Pardon?" said Robin.

"I said I'll handle it," Raven repeated, turning to face the other Titans' questioning looks. "Like you said, it's close, so it won't be too much of a problem. Plus, it's only one, so it's not really worth all of us going. You guys just stay here."

"Uhhh…okay, if you're sure," said Robin. "Call if you need any back up."

Raven nodded, closed her eyes, and flew off in her astral form. Robin frowned, deep in thought, but quickly cleared his expression as he turned and walked back to the table to finish his dinner with the others.

**OOO**

A raven-shaped shadow slipped through the wall of the warehouse. It dissipated, leaving Raven standing in the middle of the large empty space, her hood up, hiding her eyes in shadow. She looked around impassively—the warehouse looked like it had been deserted for years. The floor was covered with a thick layer of dust, and the few crates that remained were empty, little more than dusty dried-out wood lying in a corner. Raven concentrated her mind to scan the warehouse, and found only one other mind present. It was human, but vague and fuzzy, as though it was unconscious.

_Great,_ thought Raven. _Sleepwalking demons, now._

She levitated herself with a thought, and floated off in the direction of the mind. She quickly found the source—a man who was dressed like some kind of dock worker lay slumped against one of the walls, half-concealed in the darkness. Raven approached cautiously. She knew that demons could be tricky creatures, and while the man did appear to be unconscious, it could still be a trap. As she got closer, Raven noticed a white piece of paper sitting in the man's lap. She recognized it immediately as a sutra.

_It looks like Drakon got here before me,_ Raven thought. _But where is he?_

"Hello. It took you long enough to get here."

_Shit! Behind me? How could I not have sensed him?_ Raven spun, her eyes and hands glowing with barely contained power as she prepared to attack.

"Really, now, we can't have that," said Drakon, who was standing barely a dozen feet away. "I just came here to talk."

He held up a hand, and Raven suddenly felt weak. The power in her hands dissipated, and her eyes returned to their normal deep violet. She sagged to her knees, sending up a small cloud of dust.

_He's draining my power,_ Raven thought. _I can't even feel his presence, let alone fight him. How is this possible?_

"I am not your enemy," Drakon said, stepping closer.

"Heh. Yeah, right," Raven said, her mouth twisted in a cynical half-smile. "You lure me into an obvious trap with a cryptic note—hey, you're my best friend. You're probably even summoning these damn demons."

Raven surged back to her feet with a snarl, a second burst of power surrounding her fists, only for Drakon to again drain her, almost casually. This time, though, he didn't just let her sag where she stood, but sent out a wave of his own power. Raven saw the dust on the floor scatter in its path before it collided with her like an invisible freight train, sending her crashing into the wall behind her. She coughed, dust filling her lungs, and clutched at her midsection in pain—without her powers, Raven had had nothing to protect herself with, and had taken the full force of the blast. Drakon walked towards her, his usual good-natured smile replaced with an imperious glare.

"As I said, I am not your enemy, Raven of Azarath," he said. "But even so, do _not_ push me, child."

"Who are you…calling a…child?" Raven said between clenched teeth as she tried to stand. Drakon chuckled, some of his former good humour returning.

"Defiance, eh? I wouldn't expect any less from you," he said. "Well, to me, Raven, you _are_ a child. Despite my appearance, I am actually quite a bit older than you."

"Define 'quite a bit'."

"Heh. Sorry, my little secret."

Raven finally managed to come fully to her feet, although she still had to lean against the wall for support. Inwardly, she took stock of the damage that had been done to her body.

_Lots of bruises, a few cracked ribs, maybe some minor internal bleeding—nothing I can't heal in a few minutes or so,_ Raven thought. _That is, if he lets me use my powers again. I need to buy some time._

"So if you're so much older than me, what's with the look?" she said. "You afraid to show a few grey hairs?" Drakon laughed.

"No, no. This is actually my true form," he said. Raven arched an eyebrow.

"You don't look convinced, but you must have felt it yourself," Drakon continued. "It's in the nature of sorcery. Time…_touches_ us differently. I just happen to have been lucky in the way time has touched me."

"You're lying," Raven said.

"Are you saying you haven't felt it?" Drakon asked.

"No, I've felt it, but that doesn't change the fact that you're lying," Raven replied.

"Heh. I guess not," said Drakon. "But it was a good lie, wasn't it?" Raven ignored the question.

"And 'Drakon'—I'm guessing that's not your real name," Raven said.

"No. Cliché though it may sound, I have many names," Drakon said, and grinned. "I just like Drakon best."

"The fact that it pays homage to your snake familiar plays no role in that preference, I'm sure," Raven said. "Where is your scaly friend, anyway?"

"Oh, he had places to be," said Drakon. "Are you done trying to heal yourself now? I'd kind of like to stop wasting time on small talk."

Raven swore under her breath. She had still been unable to summon even the small amount of power required to heal her injuries—Drakon's suppression of her magic appeared to be complete. Besides, her questions hadn't resulted in any helpful answers. Drakon had responded to them, sure, but he had done so in ways that didn't actually provide any information. Raven sighed.

"Fine," she said. "Why did you lure me here?"

"Now, now. 'Lure' has such a negative connotation," said Drakon. "I _invited_ you here because I wanted to clear up your obvious confusion a little bit. I figured I owe you an explanation. Besides, my investigation is over, so it doesn't really matter now whether you know or not."

"Investigation? You were investigating me? Why?"

"I am a member of an order of sorcerers known as The Circle," Drakon said. "Have you heard of us?" Raven said nothing.

"No? Good. We do try to keep a low profile," Drakon continued. "Anyway, I was sent to check up on you."

"Why?"

"Tell me, Raven, have you been getting odd looks from people in Magic Alley lately?"

"No. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Hmmm, not surprising, really. It's mostly just low-level practitioners there, so they likely haven't heard about it," Drakon mused, half to himself.

"They haven't heard about what?" Raven asked, beginning to get exasperated. "I thought you said you didn't want to waste any more time."

"Ah, my apologies. You see, there's a prophecy that's been circulating recently," Drakon said. "It's nearly a thousand years old, but it was only recently rediscovered. The entire magical community, or at least that part of it that is in the know, is up in arms about the whole thing."

"And what exactly does this prophecy say?" asked Raven.

"Well, I'll paraphrase a bit, both because it's somewhat long, and because the seer who wrote it was an _exceptionally_ bad poet," said Drakon. "Anyway, the basic gist of the prophecy is this: at some point, Trigon the Terrible will launch a massive assault on the magical enclave known as Azarath. If left unchecked, this invasion will destroy Azarath completely, and then Trigon and his forces will move on to Earth."

Raven was silent for a moment, absorbing what Drakon said.

"When will this happen?" she finally asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"Presumably soon," Drakon replied. "The prophecy gives three signs of the coming invasion, all apparently unrelated, and all having something to do with you."

"With me?"

"Yes. The daughter of Trigon, that would be you, plays a very important role in the prophecy," Drakon continued. "In fact, much of the prophecy focuses on you and those three signs I mentioned."

"And what are these signs?"

"First, that a dragon will be reborn out of your loneliness, but cast back to wherever it came from after it betrays you," said Drakon. "Obviously, this refers to the brief reappearance of Malchior a few months ago."

"You know about that?" asked Raven. "How do you know so much about me?" Drakon grinned.

"We have our sources. Second, the prophecy says that your love will go mad and become a murderer," he continued. "At first, we thought it was referring to the _person_ you love going mad, so we were keeping an eye on Beast Boy, especially considering his recent feral transformation, but it looks like it actually meant that unfortunate little episode five weeks ago with that duplication ray."

"My love…as in that aspect of my personality?" said Raven, and then she frowned. "Hey! I am _not_ in love with Beast Boy!"

"Right. Sorry," Drakon said, rolling his eyes. "Finally, the third sign is some kind of plague that comes before an army of deserters, or at least that's what the prophecy says. We're not sure exactly what that might mean. It might not have happened yet."

"Well, Robin had a bit of a cold a little while ago, and then there was that time Cyborg got infected with a computer virus," said Raven. "I don't think either of them counts as a 'plague', though, and there certainly weren't any armies involved." Drakon shrugged.

"Yeah, so anyway, after these three signs have appeared and Trigon launches his attack, the prophecy says the daughter of Trigon, that's you, will 'have a role to play'," he said.

"What? 'A role to play'?" Raven said. "What kind of stupid, vague prophecy is that?"

"Hey, 'stupid, vague prophecy' is redundant, you know," Drakon said. "Double redundant, even. And that's the best translation to English we have."

Raven narrowed her eyes in thought for a second, but her eyes widened again as realization dawned.

"Wait, that's exactly why you're here, isn't it?" she said. "This prophecy is ambiguous as to what role I'll play in Trigon's invasion, so for all you know, I might even _help_ him. That's why you're investigating me—to see where my loyalties are."

"Very good, Raven. You got it in one," Drakon said with a chuckle. "Hanging around that Grayson boy really is rubbing off on you."

Raven was about to ask how Drakon knew Robin's name, but he cut her off with a dismissing wave of his hand.

"Oh, like I said—we have our sources," he said. "Do you want to know Beast Boy's middle name?"

"Tempting, but I think I have more to worry about, what with the Apocalypse being all imminent and all," Raven said with a crooked smile. "Oh, and by the way, _why the Hell should I believe you?_"

"Ah, yes, I was wondering when you were going to ask that," said Drakon. "You could always check the prophecy yourself. I think a translation of it appears in the Jirel text."

"Uh huh. And why did you feel the need to lure me all the way out here to tell me all this?" Raven asked.

"I know that you're a private person," Drakon said with a shrug. "I figured you wouldn't appreciate all this being outed in front of your friends, just in case you don't want them to know about it."

"That's very thoughtful of you," Raven said, in a flat monotone.

"Oh, and hey, if you still don't believe that I'm not your enemy, there's always the fact that I left you alive," Drakon said. Raven glowered at him, but he only laughed and turned to leave.

"See you around, daughter of Trigon," Drakon called over his shoulder as he disappeared into shadows that Raven could have sworn hadn't been there only a second before. She tried to follow, but the pain from her ribs speared through her body again. Gritting her teeth to distract herself from the pain, Raven once more tried to summon her powers to heal herself. This time her powers obliged her, and her hands were surrounded with a hazy blue light.

_I guess Drakon's hold on my powers ended when he left,_ Raven thought as she healed herself. _Ugh. Even with this, I'll still be sore for days._

She turned to look at the recently possessed dock worker, who still lay unconscious against the wall.

"And what the heck am I going to do with you?" Raven wondered aloud.

**OOO**

Robin was waiting on the roof of the Tower when Raven returned. She let herself drop to the cement in front of him, and met his masked stare. She was painfully aware of the advantage he had—while her hood hid much of her face, her eyes still showed clearly, but his mask totally hid his eyes, making it virtually impossible to know what he was thinking. Even her empathy was of little help, since after years of apprenticeship to the Batman, Robin had become accustomed to thinking in complex spirals and loop-de-loops that just gave her a headache when she tried to read any deeper into his mind than the very surface.

"Well, what took you so long?" Robin asked after a few seconds of staring at Raven in silence. Raven shrugged.

"He was a little tougher than I thought he would be," she lied. "Then I had to drop him off at the hospital." _That_ part was true, at least, although it had only taken her a few minutes. Robin didn't look convinced, but he only grunted and turned to go back inside.

"Come on," he said, not even looking over his shoulder. "It's late."

Raven sighed, and followed Robin back into the Tower.

**OOO**

Drakon watched Titans Tower, surrounded by darkness. Somehow, he seemed to be looking _through_ the Tower, seeing all that was going on inside. He had been watching as Raven had taken the man to the hospital, as well. He was always watching—it was, after all, one of the reasons he had come to Jump City.

"Well now, Raven," he muttered to himself. "What will you do now? Will you tell your friends? Or perhaps go off on your own? Either way, I know you will fight him."

Slither wound his way up his master's body in his usual manner, coming to rest in his accustomed place on Drakon's shoulder. He hissed.

"Ah, so you're back. That was quick. Did you tell them?"

Slither hissed again.

"Good, good. The Circle was pleased, I presume?"

An affirmative hiss, a slight pause, and then another hiss. Drakon chuckled.

"Oh, you worry too much, old friend. No, I only told her what she needed to know in order to be useful—just a little push in the right direction."

Another hiss.

"The demons? She'll figure it out soon enough. She's a smart girl. No doubt she'll make the connection to the last sign of the prophecy, too."

A searchlight beam, most likely from some nightclub on the waterfront, passed by, revealing that Drakon was standing not on solid ground, but on an impossibly calm strip of water in the middle of the bay. He took one last glance over the dark shape of Titans Tower, and then turned and began walking across the waves back towards the shore.

"So, you hungry?"

A hiss.

"How does Chinese sound?"

_-END CHAPTER SIX-_

**Author's Note:** Well, that took me a deuce of a long time to write. I've had a bunch of ideas for other stories bouncing around like crazy in my head, so I've had to release some pressure by doing some Silly Villainy (my apparently on-going comedy thingy in script format—not suitable for the faint of heart, small children, or the elderly). Most of my stuff is pretty Raven-centric, but I've had this one idea that focuses on Starfire for some reason, which is weird because I view the character as fairly flat, aside from a (very) few wrinkles (although, as with most of the characters in the Teen Titans show, she is miles ahead of the characters in most other American cartoons). I won't go into any details about it here, but I might get around to writing it after I'm done with Stalker. I think I'm starting to lose focus here, as well as perhaps losing some interest in this story, but I'll keep going since I've already got it started. I hate not finishing things.

Some of you may have noticed that this story is doing a little bit of exploration into the interaction between Robin and Raven. That's kind of a side project for me here. I see the two of them as in tension, not romantically (sorry RaeRob fans), but as mutual unknowns. They trust each other, but neither of them is fully able to read the other, and neither of them likes that. Raven isn't as obsessive about it, of course, but I think it still bothers her. Needless to say, the secrets Raven is keeping in this story is deepening that tension—I've tried to show this by having the scenes between her and Robin be shorter and more direct, kind of like quick, fast-paced cuts to increase the tension in a film scene. This is one of my few forays into the realm of purposeful stylistic variation, so let me know if this has worked.

Semi-Quasi-Maybe-Contest-Like-Thing! I'm beginning to think that "Stalker" isn't the best name for this story. My initial idea was for it to seem like Drakon was stalking Raven, but that hasn't really made it to the final product. He seems more like the Smoking Man from X-Files at the moment than some deranged, obsessive fan. However, try as I might, I can't for the life of me come up with a better name. So, I'm putting the question to you, the readers: what do you think a better name for this story would be? And please don't give me something like "OMG DRAKON MEETS THE TITANS!!1" That was, like, the first thing I crossed off my list. Important Note: I reserve the right to say "Screw it, I'm sticking with 'Stalker'" at any point. Consider yourselves warned!

**To My Reviewers:**

nevermoretheraven: No 30-character chapters here. Also, I have something like a bazillion paragraph divisions, with the way I structure my writing. Does it just keep getting better the more paragraphs I have, or is there some limit to this? (Hmmm…take the limit of f(x) where x approaches infinity, and f(x) is how good a story with x paragraphs is…carry the three…)

staticsponge123: While I tend to think of swearing as a tool for the purposes of writing (to express a character, or for shock value, for instance), I know that it can often be used excessively, which is where problems start. As a general rule, I try to stay away from swearing in my serious stories, both to keep them within PG-13 limits, and because I think that too much swearing can cheapen a story. I hope you'll overlook what little swearing I do have in here, since I think it's in appropriate places (like when Raven realizes Drakon is behind her, etc.), and am not going to remove it. You might want to avoid my humour piece called Silly Villainy, though—it's not exactly swearing, but it might be the kind of stuff your parents will laugh like crazy about and then forbid you from ever coming to this site again. Oh, and, uhhh…Happy Birthday to you, too, I guess. (Geez, that was long for just a response to a request for no swearing…)

CloudsHalo: Just doing fencing is good, and a lot better than some people who just read a few manuals and then think they can fence. You might know exactly what I'm talking about if I showed you, but just not know the terms I'm using to describe the techniques (I'm only half sure of them myself). However, I think that at some point some exploration of the theories behind fencing, or even just tactics in general, is necessary—for instance, I think that a firm understanding of George Silver's four governors (which were given rather short shrift in his manual, in my opinion) is a must for any fencer wanting to take their fight to a higher level. But this probably isn't the place to be discussing that. Anyway, I hope this chapter advanced things a bit more. At the very least, it set up a whole slew of stuff that might only pay off in future _stories_, not just chapters. Like I said in an author's note a few chapters ago, I now have Da Plan, and everything is falling into place…yesssss… I don't know about the Sir Robin song from Holy Grail, since I'm trying to be a bit more serious with Robin now. As for Cyborg and Robin joining in with the Ghostbusters theme song, who _doesn't_ love that song? Well, maybe not _love_, exactly, but you know what I mean. I will be continuing with Silly Villainy. I have a few new chapters lined up, although I'm kind of running out of ideas. Funny is hard to do, man. And about the new episodes: Is Feb. 5th the Cartoon Network airtime or something? Because I'm in Canada, and don't get the American cable channels like Cartoon Network or the WB. I might have just missed them, but I haven't seen any episodes past Wavelength. And _NO FREAKIN' SPOILERS!_

Blackbird: Thank you for the compliments. I had the same "seeing it as a movie, and therefore can't translate it properly into text" problem with parts of this chapter, mainly the bit where Drakon slams Raven against the wall. I pictured the former as kind of a Matrix-esque bullet time sequence, with the dust rippling out of the way and then Raven getting thrown backwards, but of course bullet time is a pain in the ass to put into text. I usually have the same kind of problem with at least one part of every serious chapter I write (and even some of the humour ones). Oh, and feel free to use Magic Alley if you want. I probably won't be having any more scenes there, so you can do whatever you want with it, in terms of changing things around, adding things and so on, without having to worry about disagreeing with me on it. Not that you should really worry about that anyway. (Side Note: you might already have seen it, but I did put up a review for Songbird. The bury-age on FanFiction can be a pain, can't it? "I swear, I just posted this, and already it's at #392…")

Dear God! My ending notes are over a page and a half long! Oh, well. Back to the Bag Cave!


	7. Pattern Recognition

(Disclaimer: See previous chapter's disclaimer. Or whichever other one you think is the wittiest.)

_-CHAPTER SEVEN-_

Robin sat back in his chair, staring at his computer screen. On the screen, the locations of every demonic possession that had occurred so far were marked by a red dot on a map of Jump City. Even with the large numbers of possessions, there was still no apparent pattern. There were three apparently random areas where the possessions seemed to cluster, but investigating those areas had led to three separate dead ends. Even if it was a completely random distribution of locations for the possessions, the geometric centre should have, statistically speaking, yielded some clues, but Robin had found nothing, even after going over the site with a fine-toothed comb. The site had turned out to be a ladies' public washroom in one of Jump City's many malls, so that had gotten Robin some odd looks. Robin sighed.

_It looks like I'm going to have to open this up to the others again to see if they have something to add,_ he thought. _As much as I realize that my tendency to obsess over cases creates tensions in the team, it's still embarrassing that I can't figure this out myself._

Robin hit a few keys, transferring the information on his computer to the one in the living room, and stood up to head there himself. He stopped in his doorway and looked back at the small screen sitting on his desk, which still displayed the locations of all the possessions.

_Raven, at least, might know something,_ Robin thought. _Although whether or not she'll pass on that knowledge is another thing._

He sighed again, and closed his door.

**OOO**

Raven was sitting cross-legged on her bed, an enormous book opened in her lap. It was the Book of Jirel, as the large gold lettering on its dark green cover would have attested, had it been visible, and its size was such that, with a little effort, Raven probably could have hidden her entire body behind it. After taking nearly an hour to decipher the incredibly unhelpful index, Raven had finally found the entry that she was looking for—the prophecy that Drakon had told her about was there, just as he had said. Also just as he had said, the seer who wrote it certainly was an exceptionally bad poet. The metre and phonetics of the translation were awful, and from what Raven knew about Kirralnian, the language that the prophecy had originally been written in, the original probably would be even worse.

_It's all here, just like Drakon said,_ Raven thought. _The dragon, love's madness, and this plague and army thing. If Drakon's right and the dragon was Malchior, and love's madness was my love duplicate going nuts, then what could this plague and army be?_

She scanned the prophecy once more, just in case something jumped out at her, but nothing did. Lost in thought, she began reading the next entry by reflex, not really paying attention to what was on the page. Soon, something began nagging at her conscious mind. Something she had read in that next entry was trying desperately to get her attention. She focused, and reread the first part—it was a discussion of a particularly brutal series of possessions that took place over six hundred years ago in a small town in what is now Belarus.

_Hmmm…this could actually be helpful. Way to go, subconscious,_ Raven thought, and continued to read. _"The sequence of fourteen possessions, all within the space of a fortnight, claimed the lives of fully two dozen townspeople, despite the presence of a battle-mage of the Order of the Twilight Mist. The reason for the possessions was never discovered. The aforementioned mage, one Piotr Alexei Gregari, commented that the possessions were 'inscrutable and mysterious in their source, like as to some dark plague sent by the devil himself.'"_

Raven froze.

_A plague?_ she thought. _Could that mean…?_

Raven's thoughts were interrupted by Robin's voice coming over the intercom.

"Titans, could you gather in the living room as soon as possible, please?" he said. "I'd like to have another little brainstorming session."

Raven sighed. She closed the Book of Jirel, being careful to mark her place with the thin black ribbon attached to the book's spine, and stood up. As she made her way to her door, she glanced back over her shoulder at the massive book, lying apparently harmlessly on her bed.

_The demonic possessions as a plague…but then if that is the case, what could the army be?_

**OOO**

"Dude, you're asking for our help _again?_" Beast Boy said as Raven entered the living room. "This isn't like you."

"Well, I know that my usual…uhhh…_intense_ investigation style has been putting the team under some stress lately, so I'm trying to change," Robin said. "Also, I, uh, haven't been able to make any progress by myself."

"Oh, I think it is a wonderful idea to allow us to partake in your investigation as well," Starfire gushed, with what Raven thought was perhaps a bit too much enthusiasm. "That way the entirety of the burden of the deductive process does not fall upon you alone."

"Uhhh…yeah," Robin said, and brought the diagram of the possessions' locations up on the main screen. "So, anyway, here's the pattern of possessions so far, or the lack thereof, as far as I can tell. As you can see, there are three clusters of high possession activity, but I've checked those sites and found nothing. I've also checked the centre of the entire distribution, and again there was nothing."

Raven stared at the diagram.

_That pattern,_ she thought._ Possessions require a weakening of the borders of reality, so it might be…no, surely it couldn't…_

Robin was watching Raven intently.

"Do you see something, Raven?" he asked.

"Maybe," she said. "I'm just going to go get something from my room."

Raven turned on her heel and left the living room at a brisk walk, returning a few minutes later carrying a book. Other than the fact that it was bound in black leather, it looked not unlike a math textbook. Raven was running her finger along one of the pages, searching for something.

"What is that, Raven?" asked Cyborg. "Have you got something?" Raven nodded.

"It looks like a distribution of spatiotemporal weaknesses caused by a magic spell," she said. "I'm not _sure_ that that's what it is, and I have no idea what kind of spell it would be yet, but…"

"Whoa, whoa!" said Beast Boy. "What's with the temporary spatulas?"

"It's 'spatiotemporal', Beast Boy," Raven said. "Spatiotemporal weaknesses are like spots where the space-time continuum is thinner than normal." Robin and Cyborg nodded thoughtfully. Even Starfire seemed to understand.

"Great, once again I'm the only one who doesn't get it," Beast Boy complained. Raven sighed.

"Magic isn't like any other force in nature, in that it doesn't result in some law that all matter and energy obeys, like gravity does," Raven explained. "Instead, magic is a force that allows the other laws of reality to be bent or broken, so that things that normally could never happen are made possible. To do that, it has to weaken reality, that is, create a spatiotemporal weakness. Of course, normal magic does this in extremely limited, highly controlled ways, and the weaknesses created are only temporary."

Raven began pacing as she continued, still holding her book.

"But it isn't that simple. Spatiotemporal weaknesses aren't so cut-and-dried, and you can never have just one localized point of weakness. Once you get quantum mechanics in there, you actually end with something like a _field_ where reality is weakened, rather than a single point, with the area of intended weakness created by the spell being only an area of intense concentration of that field. The background weakness of the field is usually barely even worth mentioning, and while there are other minor focal points aside from the main concentration, they are also so weak as to be virtually undetectable under normal circumstances. However, in this case, it looks like the field of unreality, if that is really what this is, is strong enough to allow demons to break through into our world, at least enough for them to possess people and things. The three clusters of high activity would be the minor focal points of the field."

The other Titans stared at Raven. Beast Boy's mouth hung open, and his ears drooped a bit.

"Whoa," Cyborg said, finally. "I had no idea that magic was so…_scientific_."

"Yeah, me neither," Robin added. "But wait, if these weaknesses are normally too small to matter, what does it mean that these ones are strong enough to create some sort of effect?"

"Well, if it _is_ a field of unreality caused by a magic spell, that spell would have to be absolutely massive, based both on the strength of the unreality field and the sheer area that it covers," Raven said. "Comparing the diagrams in this book to the distribution of possessions, I'd say that it looks like it would be a summoning spell of some kind. With this kind of power, though, they'd have to be summoning an…" Her voice trailed off.

_Oh, no. By Azar, no…_

"What is it?" Cyborg asked. "What would they have to be summoning?"

"An army," Raven said, half to herself.

"Raven? Are you okay?" Beast Boy asked. Raven shook herself to clear her head, and continued.

"Anyway, if that's what this is, then the actual centre of the field _isn't_ the geometric centre," she said. "It's always a bit off, due to the Gallian drift—I won't go into that too much, but it's kind of like a magical current flowing around the world. Anyway, the true centre should be…uh, Robin, do you have all the coordinates for the possessions' locations entered into the computer somewhere?"

Robin showed Raven the list of coordinates, where they were entered into the program that superimposed them onto the map of Jump City. Raven looked in her book, and then entered a complex equation into the program. Another red dot appeared on the map, slightly off-centre.

"There. That should be the true centre," Raven said.

"Hmmm…It's a school," said Robin. "Marsdale College. It's a private boarding school, both junior and regular high school." He called up the school's website, and gave a low whistle.

"Whoa! That looks pretty swanky!" said Cyborg.

"Oh, a school's a school," Beast Boy said with a shrug.

"Well, _this_ school is considered one of the best high schools in the state," said Robin. "It's got some serious financial backing, too, by the looks of it."

"Um…this place of learning…it is not as horrible as Mad Mod's?" asked Starfire.

"Oh, no. Most schools on Earth are okay," Robin said.

"Says _you_," Beast Boy muttered.

"Oh. I just have not seen any other Earth schools, and if this one is the centre of some kind of disturbance in reality…" Starfire began, but Robin interrupted her.

"Heh. That's just two bad schools, Star. There are plenty of other ones that aren't so bad," he said. "And while this Marsdale College might be located at the centre of the disturbance, we don't know for sure that it's the _source_ of that disturbance."

"We'll have to check it out, then?" said Cyborg. Robin nodded.

"Oh, yes, I would love to see this Earth school!" Starfire said.

"Count me out, man," said Beast Boy. "I don't want to go anywhere _near_ any stupid school."

"Hey, that's fine," said Cyborg. "Then I won't have to deal with you making a mess in my car on the way there."

"No, we can't just go in there and poke around, even with permission from the school itself," said Robin. "If they're hiding anything, then knowing we're there will make them heighten their security, and we might never find what we're looking for. If we want to be sure, we'll have to infiltrate the school."

"Infiltrate? As in sneak in?" asked Raven.

"No, infiltrate as in create a cover story and live there for a while in order to do some reconnaissance," said Robin.

"Live there for a while?" said Cyborg. "Who's gonna watch the city while we're doing that?" Robin thought for a second.

"We'll split up the team. Raven and I will infiltrate the school, since we can pass as normal humans more easily than the rest of you," he said. "I know you have those holographic projector rings, Cyborg, but while they'll make you look fine, you still won't _feel_ like flesh—we'll have to live in close proximity with the students, so we need something that's completely convincing." Cyborg nodded.

"No problem," he said. "I'll make sure nobody runs off with the city while you're away."

"What about me?" asked Starfire.

"Well, Star, you don't look exactly human either, but while Cyborg's holo-rings could change _your_ appearance, too, you still don't exactly have the…uhhh…_experience_ with Earth culture necessary to blend in," Robin said. "I'm sorry, I know you want to see this school, but you'll have to stay here with Cyborg." Starfire pouted.

"Well, I guess I'm out, since green people kind of stick out and all," said Beast Boy. "Thank God, because I don't think I'd be able to stand going to school, even if it _is_ just to snoop around."

"Actually, Beast Boy, you _will_ be coming with us," said Robin. "Cyborg's holo-rings can change your appearance just as well as they could Cyborg's or Starfire's, and your shapeshifting could be very handy for 'snooping around'."

"What? No!" Beast Boy cried. "I mean, you and Raven can easily…"

"To really look around, both Raven and I need to be visible—I don't have any special powers, and even Raven's astral form can be kind of noticeable. If we're going to do any serious reconnaissance, we'll need to find where all the security cameras are first, so we can avoid them," said Robin. "You, on the other hand, can just morph into a fly or something and buzz around without having to worry about being seen. You'll have to be our eyes and ears before we get the school's security systems mapped out."

"Awww, man!" Beast Boy complained. "I _hate_ school! I don't have to attend _classes_, do I?"

"Yes, you do," said Robin. "All three of us will have to attend classes in order to blend in."

"But why can't I just look around as a fly all day while you guys are in class, and then spend the night in your room or something?" Beast Boy said.

"Can you hold your fly form that long?" asked Robin. Beast Boy sagged.

"I didn't think so," Robin said. "It's settled. Beast Boy, you'll be coming with Raven and I to stay at this Marsdale College while we investigate it."

"Hey, I don't like having to go to classes any more than you do, Beast Boy," Raven said. "Just deal with it." Beast Boy sagged even further.

"Right. Cyborg, get Beast Boy set up with your holo-rings, then see what you can do to create a cover story for us," said Robin. "Raven, purple hair and eyes will probably stand out, as will your pale skin and that gem on your forehead. Do you have some way of concealing that?"

"A simple appearance spell should do the trick," Raven said with a shrug.

"Good. I have something else I want you to use that should help to keep people from connecting you to who you really are," Robin said.

"What? Why?" Raven asked.

"Well, part of my training under Batman was to take acting lessons, so I can disguise even my body language," Robin said. "As a shapeshifter, Beast Boy is kind of a natural actor, and besides, he'll have his appearance virtually completely altered by the holo-rings. You're the odd one out." Raven sighed.

"Okay, fine," she said. "It had better not be anything weird. I'm already going to be wearing stuff I normally wouldn't, and changing the way I look." Robin grinned.

"Don't worry, it's nothing major," he said. "Okay, let's get moving, Titans!"

**OOO**

Beast Boy stood in his room, in front of his mirror, staring at himself. Cyborg had set up the holo-rings for Beast Boy's appearance, and the effect was quite dramatic—aside from his startlingly green eyes, Beast Boy now had medium brown hair and the slightly pinkish skin that was the human norm. His ears were also unpointed, and his usual jutting lower fang had disappeared.

_I look…normal,_ Beast Boy thought. _It's been so long, I had almost forgotten what normal me looked like._

There was a knock at his door, and he heard Robin's muffled voice from the other side.

"Beast Boy! Are you ready yet?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," Beast Boy said, picking his way over the piles of dirty laundry that littered his room. He cast one last glance over his shoulder at the image in his mirror before opening his door. Turning to face Robin, he gave a small involuntary scream.

"What?" Robin said.

"R-r-robin? Is th-that you?" Beast Boy stammered.

"Who did you think it was?" Robin asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Beast Boy looked him over—Robin had changed from his usual red and green tights into a pair of dark blue jeans and a plain white T-shirt, over which he wore a dark red short-sleeved button-up top, unbuttoned so the white shirt underneath showed. He had un-gelled his black hair, which had probably been a very time-consuming process, and it fell down around his ears, as well as a few errant strands falling down across his forehead. Perhaps most startling of all, though, was the fact that his mask was off, showing his clear blue eyes.

"Uhhh…well, I sure didn't think it was you," Beast Boy eventually said, lamely.

"Whatever. Let's go see how Raven's doing, and then hopefully Cyborg will have our cover stories ready," Robin said, turning to head down the hall to Raven's room. Beast Boy trailed after him.

The two boys stopped in front of Raven's door. Robin knocked, but before he could say anything, they heard Raven's voice from the other side of the door.

"Just a minute. I'm almost done."

She sounded irritated, or at least more than normal.

"This should be interesting," Robin said. "I wonder if she'll actually wear what I gave her."

"You gave her something?" asked Beast Boy. "What did you give her?"

"Oh, just a fake pair of glasses to help conceal her identity," Robin replied. Beast Boy choked.

"Glasses? You gave her glasses? Like, to wear?" he spluttered. Robin nodded.

"Do you have any idea what that means?" Beast Boy continued. "Have you never heard of the Daniel Wilcox Theory of Girls with Glasses?"

"The what?" said Robin, a quizzical expression on his face.

"Dude! The Daniel Wilcox Theory of Girls with Glasses!" cried Beast Boy, pulling at his hair with frustration. "It says that any girl is, like, _ten times_ hotter than normal while wearing glasses!"

"Ooookaay," said Robin, just as Raven's door opened. The two boys turned to look at her. Beast Boy's jaw dropped.

Raven's 'simple appearance spell' had obviously worked—her normally purple hair and eyes had both become a deep brown, her skin was noticeably less pale, and the gem on her forehead had disappeared. Other than that, she was wearing a baggy pair of cargo khakis, a chrome-studded black leather belt, and a tight black T-shirt that had on the front, in white, an upside-down Nike swoosh and the slogan 'Just Don't', none of which looked like it had ever been worn before. And she was wearing a pair of wire-rimmed glasses.

"What's wrong with Beast Boy?" she said. Robin shrugged.

"Some theory about girls looking better with glasses on, I think," he said.

"Glasses...tight T-shirt…effects multiplying…exponential increase…in hotness…" Beast Boy mumbled, staring at Raven.

"Oh, snap out of it! You've seen me with glasses on before!" Raven said, using her powers to shake Beast Boy. "Remember my intelligence duplicate?"

"Well, yeah, but I didn't know about the theory then," Beast Boy said. "And where did you get those clothes? You never wear anything other than your cloak and leotard!"

"Don't call it a leotard! It sounds like I'm taking ballet classes or something," Raven said, dropping Beast Boy to the ground. "And as for where I got these, well, do you remember all those times Starfire dragged me to the mall? Do you really think she ever would have let me hear the end of it if I hadn't bought at least _something?_"

"Hmmm…good point," Beast Boy said. "Where _is_ Starfire, anyway?"

Cyborg chose that moment to poke his head out of his room and call to them from down the hall.

"I told her to stay in her room until I was done setting up your cover stories," he said—he had obviously been listening. "I'll need a picture of each of you for your fake IDs and passports, and I don't want one of her thermonuclear hugging fits to mess up your looks before I take your pictures."

"Awwwww…" Starfire said from inside her room. "But I wish to see my friends _now!_"

"Wait, did you say _passports?_" Raven said, ignoring Starfire's muffled complaints.

"Yeah, your cover story is that you're a group of Canadian exchange students," Cyborg said.

"What? Does that mean I'll have to wear a parka or something?" asked Beast Boy. Cyborg sighed.

"No, Beast Boy, no parka," he said. "Canada is really only that cold in the _winter_, same as in, say, Michigan, or one of the other more northerly states. Besides, you're supposed to be from Vancouver, and they have an even milder climate than that."

"So no igloos?" Beast Boy said.

"No, no igloos. Or polar bears, or seal hunts, or dog sleds, or pretty much any other thing you're probably thinking about," said Cyborg. "Think spring in Jump City, but with a bit more rain."

As Beast Boy grappled with this new information, Cyborg took all their pictures and entered them into their cover story profiles on his computer, which would automatically create fake IDs and passports virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. While all this was probably illegal, Cyborg rationalized it by saying that they would only use it for this one mission, and then he would junk the system. It wouldn't be that big a loss, since the system hadn't even _existed_ an hour ago—being a partially robotic genius had certain advantages when it came to making custom equipment in a hurry.

"Okay, now all I need are some names, and then we're set," Cyborg said.

"I'd suggest keeping your real first names, to avoid having to get used to being called by a totally different name, but other than that, try not to use anything that sounds like your real name," said Robin. "For instance, I'm going with Richard Black, as opposed to my real name, Richard Grayson."

"Hmmmm…Raven is my real first name, but that might be a bit obvious," Raven said. "I'll go with Grace Roth. Roth was my mother's last name, and, uh, I've always kind of liked the name Grace."

"Alright," said Cyborg, as he entered the two names into his computer. "What about you, BB?"

"Uhhhh…I'll go with Mark Davis, I guess," Beast Boy said. "I don't know why Davis, it just popped into my head."

"Your first name is Mark?" Raven asked.

"Uhhhh…no, actually Mark is my _middle_ name," Beast Boy said, avoiding eye contact.

_Hmmmm…well, that's one less thing Drakon can hold over me now,_ Raven thought.

"Why, what's your _first_ name?" she said out loud. Beast Boy gulped, and stared down at his own feet.

"It's um…Garfield," he said sheepishly.

After a moment of silence while that sank in, Cyborg nearly fell out of his chair laughing. Even Robin had to suppress a chuckle. Raven, on the other hand, did nothing.

"Oh, man! Like the cat!" Cyborg said. "Hey, can I stick you up in the window in the T-Car?"

"Actually, Garfield is a fairly traditional name," Raven said impassively. "I believe a past president of the United States was called Garfield."

Cyborg stopped laughing and stared at Raven. Beast Boy also stared at her in shock.

"Um, gee, Raven, thanks for the, uh, support," he said. Raven just shrugged, but inwardly she was confused.

_Why the Hell did I just do that?_ she wondered. _Ugh. I need to meditate._

"Okay, then, Mark Davis it is…_Garfield_," Cyborg said, still snickering a little. "Now I just hit the 'OK' button, and there we go! IDs and passports all around!"

Cyborg's printer, which had undergone some serious modifications in the last hour, emitted a sickening grinding noise, but sure enough, it spat out three sets of fake identification. Cyborg handed them out to their respective owners.

"Okay, so you'll be starting there in two days," he said. "Sorry about the time lag, but that was the earliest I could make it without being _really_ obvious about things."

"That's fine, thanks," Robin said. "It'll give us some time to pack. We _will_ be staying at a boarding school, after all, so we can't very well come back here for extra clothes."

"If it's all the same to you guys, I'm going to go change back into something more comfortable," Raven said, and started out back down the hall. Cyborg grinned evilly.

"Oh, _Staaarrfiiiiiiirrrre!_" he called. "You can come _ooooouuuuutt noooooowww!_"

"Oh, _joyous!_"

The three boys, still standing in Cyborg's room, heard Raven swear, and then the distinctive thump of one of Starfire's flying tackle hugs. They started to chuckle, but Beast Boy stopped, having realized a flaw in the joke.

"Wait, we're going to have to go out there now, aren't we?" he said. Robin paused, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Hmmm. That's true," he said. "I forgot about that."

"_I_ didn't!" Cyborg said, and booted the other two out into the hall and slammed his door, giggling like a maniac.

"Oh, crap," said Beast Boy.

Starfire squealed in delight, and the two boys turned and ran. It was, in the end, a futile effort.

_-END CHAPTER SEVEN-_

**Author's Note:** Whew! That was a long chapter. But hey, a lot happened. Revelations abounded! Plans were set! Tackle hugs were…uhhh…perpetrated! I'd say I wanted one of Cyborg's fake ID machines, but a) I've been old enough to drink locally for almost two years now (in less than a month I'll be old enough to drink in most of the States, too), and b) I don't actually drink alcohol anyway. I don't smoke, either, so basically, unless those Warner Brothers lawyers do eventually find out where I live, I won't need any fake IDs any time soon.

You'll probably notice my long-winded attempt at explaining magic (at least in terms of the story), as told by Raven. I don't really believe in magic _per se_, although I _do_ think that there are certain things that science can't fully account for, even with the right theories at work. That's really more of an objection to reductionism than a belief in magic, though (if that didn't make any sense, don't worry about it—it's reasonably thoroughgoing philosophy crap, and you probably have better things to worry about). Anyway, that is how I'd explain the magic that appears in the show, if I had to: magic is a force (or set of forces?) that allow the other fundamental forces of nature to be bent or broken in certain ways. Of course, the actual application of that will still be heavily dominated by mysticism, and concepts like natural elements, law and chaos, and so on (so maybe eye of newt contributes a certain mix of these elements to the spells it is used in or something). And while I'm talking about my cockamamie theories, I'd just like to clear something up about my conception of Azarath: as far as I've seen in my admittedly limited research into what actually happens in the Teen Titans comic books, Azarath is a place in another dimension, not on another planet, which is populated by pacifistic sorcerers who fled from some conflict on Earth (or perhaps from conflict in general), led by a sorcerer (sorceress? My sources don't say for sure) called Azar. Raven left Azarath to help found the Teen Titans in order to combat her father, Trigon, after a disagreement with her teachers in Azarath over the best way to deal with him (i.e. Raven said action, and their pacifistic ideals got in the way). This is effectively all I know about Azarath as it appeared in the comics. I'll be making a few slight alterations to that backstory, particularly regarding Raven's reasons for leaving Azarath, since they don't exactly fit with what has appeared in the TV show. I'll also be making a few adjustments to the history and hierarchy of Azarath—effectively, I'll be making its history a little longer. It seems in my sources that Azarath was founded quite recently, and that this Azar is still around, but I'll be pushing that founding back a little in history, and 'Azar' will become the title of the head sorcerer in Azarath as well as the name of its founder, kind of like 'Caesar' became the title of the ruler of Rome. I'd also like to point out that just because the population of Azarath is virtually exclusively made up of sorcerers, that doesn't mean that they are the only sorcerers around. In particular, Drakon and the other members of the Circle are from Earth (at least most of them—an idea has struck me, but I'll have to see if it fits in later on).

Anyways, next chapter, the Titans (or at least Robin, Raven, and Beast Boy) will be going to a boarding school! This is mostly just a plot thing, and Marsdale College won't be meant to be anything like my high school (which was a public school that I didn't live in). I might take the opportunity to express some of my dislike for high school, though. All I can say is that cynics are made, not born, and high school was _the_ defining period in the development of my cynicism.

About the fact that the Titans don't seem to know each other's names: the way I see it, it had just never really come up. It also allows me to make a little joke about Beast Boy's name. Oh, and incidentally, I only found out that his middle name was Mark between finishing last chapter and starting this one, so I actually didn't know it when Drakon asked Raven if she wanted to hear it. And as for Raven's mother's last name, I saw that somewhere. I forget where. I don't know if that's part of the comic book canon or not.

While I remember, apologies to David Willis, the creator of the webcomics "Roomies!" and "It's Walky!" I kind of stole the idea of the Daniel Wilcox Theory of Girls with Glasses from him, as well as appropriating the name of one of his characters for it.

Right, I think that's it for now. I'll try to update again as soon as I get Chapter 8 written. Oh, and keep sending ideas for possible new names for this story. This isn't to say that none of the ones sent to me were good (some have some real potential), but I'd like to get a few more into the running before I decide.

**To My Reviewers:**

CloudsHalo: I haven't actually seen "The Beast Within", but I have seen a (very) basic episode summary, as well as some related stuff in other fan fictions, so I have a reasonably good idea about what happened in the episode, at least in terms of where things ended up. I don't consider that enough, of course, and I still want to see the episode rather than just a summary, even if it is a much more in-depth summary than the one I saw (I'd _much_ rather see the episode, in fact). I realize that those episode summaries are kind of like spoilers, so it doesn't make any sense to say that I don't want any spoilers when I've already had quite a few, but there's something different about getting unsolicited spoilers from somebody, rather than voluntarily going on a website and finding them. Good job putting stuff together with the "demonic possessions plague" thing, as you can see from this chapter that's pretty much it. The army part has also been kind of cleared up, although of course the exact details and the consequences are still to come. About the prophecy itself, I have a very clear idea about where that will lead, although it might only come to fruition in the sequelly things I have planned. As I've said, I now have Da Plan, which is basically a general direction the main story will take over a series of shorter, relatively stand-alone stories. I don't know why I'm doing that as opposed to just one really, _really_ long story, but that's just the way things have panned out.

Wild Spirit of Darkness2: I don't know whether to want for your confusion to be cleared up, or for you to _stay_ confused. I'm trying to be at least a _bit_ suspenseful. I'm glad you like it so far, though.

staticsponge123: Uhhh…no comment. If you know anything about Adam Sandler, well…no, you know what, I'm going to leave your innocent mind be for now. Trust me, while it might seem cruel, you'll thank me for it later.

GS Dragono: Thank you! I'll see what I can do, although I might have trouble with the whole "Titans in school" scenario.

Blackbird: Hmmm…zombies, eh? And perhaps the law firm's name could be Coyotesheep and Stag? Thanks for filling in Lorne's name. That had been bugging me. Hopefully the sequelly things I mentioned to CloudsHalo will satiate your desire for continuity!

DarkSin: Thanks, and I hope this chapter hasn't disappointed you. I'm more worried about next chapter, though…

nevermoretheraven: Yes, the ending of last chapter is a bit of an indicator of things to come, although it is a cryptic one. There will be other cryptic stuff regarding Drakon and the Circle to come! Hoo-ha!

Cheezus Crust! Fourteen pages! This is _double_ some of my earlier chapters!


	8. We Don't Need No Education

(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. Can I stop guarding my ass now? Please raise your hand if you're a lawyer working for either Warner Brothers or DC Comics, or whoever else might own the rights to the Titans.)

_-CHAPTER EIGHT-_

"As you can see, Marsdale College has virtually anything a student could ask for in an education," said the vice principal, who was conducting Robin, Raven, and Beast Boy's tour of the school. They had already seen several different classrooms, the large, impressive auditorium, the several reasonably-sized gymnasiums, as well as the single massive one, the racquetball courts, the tennis courts, the weight room, and the Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool. The vice principal, a tall, skinny man by the name of Rittersfeld, had also gone on at length about Marsdale's extensive wireless internet technology, the small class sizes, the quality of the teachers, and so on. The three Titans were impressed despite themselves—even Beast Boy had found something to get excited about.

"Dude, they even have _batting cages_ here!" he said, as they waited outside the principal's office. Their tour had finally finished, and Vice Principal Rittersfeld had told them that the principal wanted to see them. He had then gone into the principal's office himself, and had not come out since. That was nearly ten minutes ago.

"We aren't here to play around, you know, Mark," Robin said, calling Beast Boy by his assumed name. "We can't just slack off of what we came here to study."

_Hmmmm…that's nicely ambiguous,_ Raven thought with a smirk. _Let's hope Beast Boy remembers to keep quiet—the principal's secretary is right there._

Only a dozen feet away, the secretary, Miss Peterson, kept typing, apparently oblivious to the conversation.

"Well, yeah, but you want us to fit in, right?" Beast Boy said. Miss Peterson looked up at them, and both Raven and Robin froze.

_Oh, shit,_ they both thought. _You'd better not blow this, Beast Boy._

"I mean, here we are visiting the States, and what's more American than baseball? When in Rome, eh guys?" Beast Boy finished, waggling his eyebrows at them. Miss Peterson went back to her typing, and Raven and Robin breathed perfectly synchronized sighs of relief.

"I'm not _that_ dumb, guys," Beast Boy whispered. "Have a little faith. _You_ were the ones who wanted me to come along, after all." Robin grinned sheepishly at Beast Boy, knowing that he had a point. Raven remained expressionless.

The three sat in silence for another few minutes—silence, despite Beast Boy's near constant fidgeting. Even when Raven turned so she couldn't see him, she swore she could still _feel_ his annoying-ness oozing out of him.

_Dear Lord, he's going to drive me round the bend,_ she thought. _Wait, who the hell says "round the bend" anymore? Why am I asking myself questions? It's already happening, isn't it? I'm going crazy. And these damn glasses Robin gave me just keep _slipping_…_

"Alright, Principal Baker would like to see you now," Vice Principal Rittersfeld said as he finally left the principal's office. The three Titans filed past him into the office, and Rittersfeld closed the door, leaving them alone with the principal.

"Well, then! I'm sure you've already heard this from Mr. Rittersfeld, but please allow me to welcome you to Marsdale College!" Principal Baker boomed. He was a large man, perhaps not quite as tall as Rittersfeld, but with a much broader build. He was middle-aged, with almost entirely grey hair, but he looked like he had been quite athletic in his prime. He seemed like he should be a sports announcer or something, and he certainly had the voice for it. He stepped out from behind his desk to give them each a firm handshake, saying their names (or rather, their false names) as he did so.

"Richard Black, I presume! And Grace Roth! And you must be Mark Davis!" Baker said. "It's always so nice to have exchange students at the school. Broadens the students' perspectives, you know!"

"Uhhh…I suppose so," Robin said.

"Of course you do!" Baker said, beaming at them. "As your host here for the term, I hope your stay will be comfortable and all that—if you need anything, anything at all, just let me or one of the other members of the staff know."

"Thanks," said Robin.

"Well, I like to get to know the students a bit, so I hope you won't mind telling me a bit about yourselves!" Baker said.

"Um, well, I'm from Lansing Public High School in Vancouver, I'm planning on majoring in chemistry when I go to college, and, uh, I study martial arts as a hobby, particularly aikido," said Robin, effectively just rhyming off his cover story.

"Oh, excellent!" Baker said. "And what about you, Miss Roth?"

"I'm also from Lansing High School, I plan on majoring in either English literature or journalism, and my hobby is reading," said Raven.

"Ah, very nice!" Baker said. "And you, Mr. Davis?"

"Uhhhh…I'm from Lansing High, I hope to major in, uh, biology, possibly going on to medical school, and my hobby is, um, playing video games," Beast Boy said.

"Wonderful!" Baker said. "Well, it's nice to meet such obviously talented youngsters like yourselves! I have to get back to work, now, lots of paperwork to be done, but I hope you will enjoy your stay at Marsdale, and I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again soon!"

With that, the three Titans said goodbye to the principal and left the office. Vice Principal Rittersfeld was waiting for them outside, and showed them to their rooms—Robin's and Beast Boy's were next to each other in the boys' wing of the dormitory, while Raven was off by herself, surrounded by strangers in the girls' wing. After Rittersfeld left, they decided to meet in the library, perhaps one of the only places on the campus that would be relatively devoid of students. First, however, they had to go to their rooms and unpack.

**OOO**

"Exchange students, huh?" said a red-haired boy. Robin thought he had heard him being called Garrett by one of the other boys.

"Yeah, that's right," said Robin as he tossed the duffel bag containing his clothes into his room.

"From Canada?" Garrett asked with a leer, and Robin nodded. "My dad says that only commie liberal wimps come from Canada."

"I'm sure he does," Robin said mildly. He was trying to match this Garrett boy up to something stored in the database that was his mind.

_Hmmm…if Garrett is his _last_ name, he could be the son of Lucas Garrett, the former CEO of the DeTraille Corporation,_ Robin thought.

"Tell me," he said out loud. "I heard someone call you Garrett just now—would you be the son of Lucas Garrett?"

"Oh, you've heard of my dad?" Garrett said. "It's no surprise, really, he's a pretty famous businessman."

"Yes, well, next time you see him, please give him my condolences for losing his company to Wayne Enterprises in that _nasty_ takeover a month ago," Robin said, keeping his mild tone, but smiling viciously on the inside. This Garrett boy had already struck him as a bully, and Robin absolutely _hated_ bullies. Taking this one down a notch or two would feel good, and probably make the whole school a slightly better place.

"Yeah, well…" Garrett began with a snarl, but stopped when he saw Beast Boy dragging his oversized suitcase down the hall. He smiled in a way that would put a viper off its lunch, and motioned to two boys who were built like linebackers, obviously his stooges.

"Man, this thing is a pain to lug around," grumbled Beast Boy, who was used to carrying the suitcase effortlessly as a gorilla. He looked up as the two stooges loomed over him, casting a shadow over his whole body.

"Uhhh…Hi there?" he said.

"That runt a friend of yours?" Garrett asked Robin. Robin narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, he is. Why do you ask?" he said.

"You know, a runt like him could get seriously hurt if he's not careful," Garrett said with a sadistic smile.

"Uhhhh…Ro...um, Rick? Little help over here?" said Beast Boy, but Robin ignored him.

"You're absolutely right," Robin said. "But then, we'd always have the tape from _that_ security camera to see exactly what went wrong."

He pointed at a small, discreet video camera mounted on the ceiling about ten feet down the hall. It was pointed right at them. Garrett snarled and called off his stooges.

"Have a nice stay," Garrett said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, as he walked off down the hall.

"Thanks, I will," Robin called after him, unable to resist.

_Robin, one; elitist asshole, zero,_ he thought with satisfaction, and went to help Beast Boy with his suitcase.

**OOO**

"Oh, a new girl!" said a perky blonde girl. "Are you, like, one of those Canadian exchange students?"

"Yeah," Raven said, and left it at that. The girl, of course, did not.

"Oh, my _gawd_, like, I don't think I would be able to deal with how totally cold it is up there," she said. Raven grimaced—she could practically _feel_ her IQ dropping.

"I mean, I am _such_ a summer person," the girl continued. "People always say I'm, like, all summery and stuff. Isn't that right, girls?"

The gaggle of girls that seemed to be following the perky blonde around nodded emphatically in unison. They were all similarly dressed, and many of them had obviously bleached their hair in an attempt to be just as blonde as the ringleader. Aside from the occasional brunette, they were virtually indistinguishable to the untrained eye.

_What have I done to deserve this?_ thought Raven.

"So, what kind of music do you listen to?" the girl asked. "You _do_ have music in Canada, right?" Raven twitched.

"I mostly listen to Bach, although I like Chopin, Grieg, and Beethoven as well," Raven said.

"You like _classical_ music?" the girl asked incredulously, as if it was some kind of taboo. The gaggle of sycophantic girls all seemed to agree with this assessment, and stared at Raven as if she had some kind of horribly disfiguring disease. Raven grinned inwardly, and decided to mess with them a little.

"Oh, and sometimes, when I'm in the mood, I listen to Led Zeppelin, or Pink Floyd, sometimes the Clash, although they're kind of different…" she began, stopping when she saw the girls' looks of horror increase.

_Oh, yeah, they're stereotypical pop bitches,_ Raven thought. _So very easy to mess with._

"Uhhh, well, as long as _I_ don't have to hear any of that stuff, that's fine," said the perky blonde. "See you later."

The gaggle of girls turned as one and trailed after their leader as she walked away. Some looked over their shoulders to stare at Raven as they went, like she was some kind of freak.

_They're probably not used to meeting someone who isn't exactly like them,_ Raven thought. _I really hate people._

She was about to go back into her room to unpack when she heard a small noise coming from one door over. She turned, preparing one of her better verbal barbs, but stopped when she saw that the girl who had made the noise wasn't a member of the perky blonde's little tribe. In fact, she was a short, skinny girl with mousy brown hair—certainly not up to spec for the 'in' crowd. She appeared nervous, and something about her told Raven that this was her usual state.

"Um, hi," the girl said, in barely more than a whisper. "I'm Catherine."

"Hi. I'm Grace," Raven said. "Uhhh…nice to meet you."

Catherine smiled weakly, and looked around to make sure nobody else was in earshot.

"There's something strange going on in this school," she whispered. Raven froze.

"Like what?" she asked. Catherine looked around again, like she expected someone to start yelling at her at any moment.

"I…I don't know. I can just _feel_ it," she said, and retreated back into her room.

"Wait, what do you mean by…" Raven said, but Catherine had already closed her door.

_Great,_ thought Raven. _All but one of my neighbours are pop-crazed airheads, and that one, while she might have information that is useful to us, is so neurotic that she won't hang around long enough to tell me anything._

Raven sighed and stepped into her room, closing her door behind her.

**OOO**

Half an hour later, the three Titans met in the library. Just as they had expected, it was virtually empty.

"Of course it's empty," said Beast Boy. "Who would want to be in some dumb old library studying when there are _batting cages_ around?" Robin and Raven both sighed.

"Okay, moving on," Robin said. "I think I've got a pretty good picture of where the security cameras are throughout the campus, at least the main part of it."

"What, just from that little tour?" Beast Boy asked.

"Of course. I was looking for cameras the whole time. You didn't think I was actually paying attention to the tour, did you?" Robin replied.

"Unfortunately, nothing they showed us today will be of any help in the investigation," Raven said. "If they're working on anything out of the ordinary, it won't exactly just be sitting out in the quad, will it?"

"No, it probably won't, but we'll still take the time to scout around the main part of the campus tonight," Robin said. "Getting to know the terrain is always a good idea—we can decide on some escape routes in case things go wrong, take note of places that might bear further investigation, and so on. After the tour today, that should only take us about fifteen minutes or so."

"So then what are we going to do for the rest of the time?" asked Beast Boy. Robin looked around to see if anyone was close enough to hear, and continued in a low voice.

"Well, _you_ will be scouting around in the lower levels in fly form," he said. "Raven, see if you can find some large source of magic, or reality weaknesses, or whatever it is. I'll be trying to get into the principal's office to see if he has anything around that might help us with our investigation."

"Hmmm…I haven't been able to sense any big focus of unreality in the school," said Raven. "It must be shielded somehow, but I'll see what I can do to break through. I would also like to take a closer look at one of those security cameras, if possible."

"Why?" asked Robin.

"There's something…_weird_ about them," Raven said. "They don't feel right. It's like some kind of _suction_ or something…that doesn't make sense, does it?"

"Whatever. If you think there's something strange about the cameras, then follow your instincts and check them out," said Robin. "Is there anything else?"

"Um, well, I don't know if it's important or not, but one of my neighbours said something weird to me," Raven said. "She said that she felt like something strange was happening in the school, but she didn't say anything else."

"That's interesting…she might know something. Try to talk to her to find out what she meant, but do it tomorrow," Robin said. "For now, get some sleep—we'll start our reconnaissance at midnight, and it'll probably take us a few hours. Our classes start tomorrow, and it probably won't be a good thing to be dead tired for them."

The other two Titans nodded, and they all went their separate ways.

**OOO**

Principal Baker sat in his office, his elbows resting on his desk, his fingers steepled in front of his face. He was staring at his computer screen, where the files for the three new exchange students were displayed. He frowned, and hit the intercom button on his desk.

"Miss Peterson, could you come in here, please?" Baker asked. Almost immediately, Miss Peterson opened the door and entered the office.

"Yes, sir?" she asked.

"Those new exchange students…have you checked their backgrounds?" Baker said.

"Yes, sir."

"And…?"

"They've all checked out so far, sir," Miss Peterson said.

"Hmmmm…so they're either genuine, or just very good at their jobs," Baker mused. "Tell the staff to keep an eye on them—their timing is just too convenient. And even if they don't pose any threat, it won't hurt to be careful. After coming so far, we cannot afford to be discovered now."

"Yes, sir," Miss Peterson said, and turned to leave the office. As the door closed behind her, Principal Baker went back to staring at his computer screen.

_-END CHAPTER EIGHT-_

**Author's Note:** I hope I'm just being paranoid about this, but this seemed like a really crappy chapter to me. Way too much exposition again, but hopefully the payoff in future chapters will be worth it. Also, I realize that having Baker pretty much outright confirm the Titans' suspicions about the school kind of dampens the suspense a bit, but the exact plan has yet to be found out. There should be a little more action next chapter, and at the very least there will be some minor high school stuff for all those of you who get a kick out of that (although I can't guarantee any kind of quality).

About some of the school characters that appeared in this chapter: I am in no way trying to put down all rich kids, or all pop princess types, or all kids who go to private schools. I would, however, very much like to put down all those who act like _these_ jerks do. As for private schools, I take a rather dim view of private schools in general—I don't see the need, since I think that if some of the effort that went into a few private schools could be put into the public school system, things would be better for a lot more students. Also, I I've only ever met very few people from private schools who weren't horrific snobs. This last thing might just be a problem of perception, though, since between the snobs and the non-snobs, it's mostly just the snobs who ever go around flaunting that they went to such-and-such a private school, while the non-snobs stay quiet. Also, about the principal and vice principal: the vice principal doesn't really represent anyone I know, but Principal Baker is partially a caricature of my high school principal. He was basically just a politician, the kind of guy who would ask you about yourself not because he actually cared about you as a person, but because he wanted to _appear_ to care about you as a person. I might not have pulled off getting that into Baker's character, at least so far. My high school principal was also big and loud, but I think that made it in with no problem. The fact that Marsdale College apparently consists mostly of sports facilities is my way to poke fun at my high school's tendency to focus attention on the various sports teams, rather than, oh, say, _academics_. It's a school, for Christ's sake, not the goddamn YMCA. The only public recognition I, or anyone else, at my school ever got for anything related to academics was when me and two other students wrote one of those math contest things in Grade 11, and beat the scores of two OACs (basically grade thirteen in Ontario, which has now been phased out) who wrote a single contest _together_. That was the only time I ever saw someone's academic achievements even _mentioned_ in a school assembly, and even then it was just for humour value. Sorry for the rant, but that still kind of pisses me off.

Right, so setting aside my hang-ups regarding high school, both public and private, I would just like to say something about the temporary chapter I had up before posting this. As I said in its Author's Note, it was not meant to be a real chapter in this story. It was just meant to be a bit of a preview of where my ideas are headed. Once I actually get started on writing _that_ story, I might, of course, change a few minor details, but hopefully I'll be able to keep it basically the same (if only so I can re-use what I've already written). If you missed seeing the preview before this (official) chapter replaced it, I might post it again at the end of this story, if you bug me about it.

About the title change: I still haven't decided yet, so feel free to keep sending me ideas!

**To My Reviewers:**

VashTheStampede7123: Thanks! I will certainly try! Ugh, accursed exposition—so painfully boring, yet so very, very necessary.

Rusty05: Well, you see, I am able to write so much because I have no social life. Just ask my friends! Wait, no, that doesn't work… Basically, I just try to write at least a bit every day, and sometimes just hit a rush of productivity and finish a bunch of chapters in the space of a few days. It's been a while since I've had one of those rushes, though.

nevermoretheraven: Well, while Roth would, technically, be Raven's last name, there is a certain division between Raven and her parents (at least from what I have seen), so I don't think she considers herself to even _have_ a last name. As I said above, I still haven't decided on a title change, if any, but it's still under consideration.

Wild Spirit of Darkness2: Yeah, I've noticed that a lot of characterizations of Raven have her basically spilling her entire past (whichever rendition of it the author picks) in a massive wave of exposition, which, as you said, isn't exactly how Raven is portrayed in the cartoon (or, I would imagine, in the comic book, either). I _did_ have the massive wave of exposition, but no past spillage! Go me! Wait, 'magic cow demons'? Ummmm…where did I ever mention cows? And as I said in the Author's Note to that temporary Chapter 8, that wasn't anything to do with this story, it was just a preview of where my ideas will be going. The 'for now' means that that little snippet will be a part of a full story later on.

Blackbird: Hey, I'm all about taking jokes and running with them, as far and as fast as I can. It should be an Olympic event. I've seen a few fan fictions with Raven going by Rachael Roth, but I didn't know that was in the comic book. It occurs to me that some people might be a bit confused about what I mean by 'the comic book'. I _don't_ mean the 'Teen Titans, Go!' comic, I mean the real, serious comic book that was around long before the cartoon. Although, I haven't read either of them. (I suppose I should have put that note in my Author's Note, instead of in a response to a review—oh, well.)

CloudsHalo: Unfortunately, as I said in my Author's Note, quite a bit more exposition and set-up this chapter, but hopefully it will pay off. I can't be at the top of my game all the time (if I ever have been, for that matter), and exposition is a bitch to work with. About the disguises, I considered having Robin wear his usual civilian outfit from Batman: The Animated Series at first, only to have it unanimously rejected by the other Titans, but I decided against it. I'm not sure why. As for Raven's shirt, I have no idea if that T-shirt actually exists, but if it does, I would like one. And the snippet from the temporary Chapter 8 _will_ be going in its own separate story at some point. Just not this point. Maybe several points from now.

staticsponge123: That was one hell of a long sentence. Breathe! Fearing nothing must come in handy. But, then again, 'nothing ghost or mortal' does leave room for the undead, so stay away from zombies! Hit you again, you say? I normally don't do requests, but violence is always an option…

Dea Lunae: Raven might not beat up a teacher, but I'm sure she'll want to. Oh, yes, she'll want to. Next chapter should have a bit of their first day of classes, after their little scouting run for the night. My ideas for stories have so far stayed away from dedicated "Titans Go to School" stuff, since I think that's kind of a slippery slope that leads to "OMG! The Titans Are My Friends!" stories, which I think are a bit immature. But then, I'm a soon-to-be-twenty-one-year-old who still watches kids' cartoons, so who the hell am I to talk about immaturity?

GS Dragono: Read the Author's Notes, man! Especially if the story changes abruptly and you don't know what's going on. That temporary Chapter 8 was just a preview of some ideas I'm working on for future stories which will be loosely connected to Stalker and my previous story, Duplomatic.

Ugh. Two in the morning. Bedtime for me now.


	9. Dark Sarcasm in the Classroom

(Disclaimer: Meh, the usual.)

_-CHAPTER NINE-_

"Come on, come on…"

Robin was busily trying to pick the lock to Principal Baker's office. It was finicky work, and doing the flashy out-in-the-open superhero thing for the last two years had left him a bit out of practice, but it soon came back to him, and he had the door open in just under a minute.

_Like riding a bike,_ Robin thought to himself with a grin. _Now, let's see what we have here…_

He slipped into the office, closing the door behind him, and cast his eyes over the room. He took note of a filing cabinet in the corner, but decided to start with the computer. He sat down in the wheeled chair behind the desk, and switched the computer on. After a moment, he was faced with his first obstacle—the system was password protected. Robin smiled grimly and took a small device from his belt. He plugged it into one of the USB ports on the front of the computer, hit a series of buttons, and in a matter of seconds the password barrier was overridden.

_Well, I'm glad _that_ worked,_ Robin thought. _I'll have to thank Cyborg for that thing later._

He quickly began searching through the many files on the computer, but was soon overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. They mostly seemed to be soft copies of various forms and other paperwork associated with the running of Marsdale, but then Robin hadn't been expecting to find a file labelled 'Demon Summoning Project, Feb. 05' or anything as obvious as that. He sighed and resigned himself to what would probably be a long search.

**OOO**

Elsewhere, in a shadow-filled hallway deep within Marsdale College, one of the many security cameras went about its business, whirring softly as it tracked back and forth. Suddenly, a shadow that was significantly darker than the rest appeared next to where the camera was mounted, and grew until it was just large enough for someone to fit their head through. That person was, of course, Raven. As she poked her hooded head out of the small portal, she quickly looked around to make sure that nobody was there, and then turned her attention to the camera.

_It _looks_ normal enough,_ she thought. _But it definitely feels odd. It's like some part of me is being pulled into it._

As Raven stared at the camera, she noticed that there were three wires extending off the back and into a hole in the mounting.

_Hmmm…that's one for the power source, and probably only one for the video feed, so what's the third one for?_ she thought.

Still puzzled, she pulled herself back into the portal and disappeared, leaving the camera alone to whirr in the darkness.

**OOO**

_38…39…40…41…_ Beast Boy counted to himself as he flew along a dimly-lit hallway beneath the main body of the Marsdale campus in his fly form. _42…43…44…45…okay, so that's forty-five cameras I've counted so far, time for the next level down._

Beast Boy was mapping out the lower levels of the school, finding as many security cameras as he could. He would never remember their exact locations, of course, but fortunately they were all set up in a very repetitive pattern, so all he had to do was remember that pattern. This was still something of a risk, considering that it was Beast Boy who had to do the remembering, but after seeing the same pattern repeated over and over so many times it was probably safe to expect him to remember it.

_Down through the ducts, and 46…47…48…big security room thing…_ he thought. _Hold on! Big security room thing?_

He buzzed into the room to investigate. So far all the rooms he had come across were just regular storage rooms filled with normal school stuff, but this one contained row upon row of monitors, showing what were obviously video feeds from the various security cameras. The security guard on shift was fast asleep at his post, but Beast Boy was still careful as he explored the security room—he had noticed a camera mounted on the ceiling, and didn't want to blow all his hard work now. There was also some sort of weird machine sitting in the corner that Beast Boy could not identify. However, saying that Beast Boy could not identify it wasn't saying too much, and he realized this, so he decided to just take note of it and carry on in his scouting mission, leaving the more thorough investigation to Robin and Raven. Further down the hall, and several cameras later, he noticed another large room that didn't seem to be used for storage, and then another, and another. The third one had its door closed and locked, and Beast Boy was unable to crawl underneath, even in his fly form—the doors on these last few rooms were heavy-duty security doors that sealed up tight when closed and could probably take a blast from a grenade without suffering any major damage.

_Huh, I guess that if an evil spell was being cast around here, this would be the place for it,_ Beast Boy thought. _I wonder what's going on behind that door, though._

He tried once again to get in under the heavy door, but his efforts proved futile. Even the ducts leading to the room were blocked off with a fine wire mesh. He decided to move on, and passed another few rooms like the last, except that they were open and empty. Finally he came to a large, impressive looking door that was undoubtedly even tougher than the security doors on the last few rooms. It looked like it could stand up to not only a grenade, but probably a tank as well. If Beast Boy's fly form had had lips, he would have whistled in amazement.

_Whoa. This door looks important,_ he thought. _It also breaks the pattern for these lower levels—none of the other floors have a door here. It must be for something special._

Beast Boy tried the ducts again, but again his passage was blocked my wire mesh. There also didn't seem to be any further floors for him to explore.

_Huh. End of the road, I guess,_ Beast Boy thought. _Oh, well. Looks like I'll just have to go back upstairs. Robin and Raven will probably be waiting for me, anyway._

With that thought, he buzzed off through the ducts, up towards the surface and away from those mysterious rooms.

**OOO**

"Right, so I didn't find anything," Robin said. After a few hours of scouting around the school, the three Titans had reconvened on the roof, away from the security cameras, to meet and share information before heading back to their rooms.

"Me neither," said Raven. "I couldn't find any major source of magical disturbance, even when I'm looking for shields or other interference. The cameras were a dead end, too, although I did find that they _all_ feel weird, and also that they all have an extra wire coming out of them that I can't place."

"Hey, maybe that has something to do with that weird machine I saw in the security room downstairs," said Beast Boy.

"Security room? Weird machine?" asked Robin.

"Oh, yeah, I found a bunch of stuff we should probably look into later in the lowest level of the basement," Beast Boy said. "There were a bunch of rooms with lockable doors, one really big, important looking locked door, and a security room thing that had some kind of weird machine in it."

"Hmmm…it's definitely worth a look," Robin mused aloud. "Okay, that'll be what we do tomorrow night—you got the security camera layout, right?" Beast Boy nodded.

"Excellent. So, for our next little scouting session, Raven, you check that machine in the security room in case it sheds some light on those cameras, I'll check those rooms to see if there's anything that might help us, and Beast Boy, you'll be trying to get into that big door," Robin said, and Raven and Beast Boy nodded in assent. "Right, so let's get some more sleep before we have to go to class. See you in the morning."

With that, the three Titans separated, Raven heading back to the girls' dorm, and Robin and Beast Boy heading to the boys' dorm. All three of them hurried, since they only had a few more hours to sleep before class started, and they wanted to make the most of that time.

**OOO**

"And then to enter Rome, Caesar crossed…anyone? Anyone? The Rubicon. So with that move, the Roman Triumvirate completely disintegrated, and then in the year…"

Raven was bored. There was no way around it. Boredom permeated her every cell, penetrating to the very core of her being. It was unavoidable—it was as much a part of her now as her right arm. She had long ago given up trying to amuse herself. She was not an experienced fidgeter, like Beast Boy, who was busily drawing what looked like poorly-rendered two-dimensional tanks blowing up an irregular square that was labelled 'school'. Even Robin had resorted to doodling, although his drawings looked much more technical, and he used his ruler a lot. Raven, on the other hand, had spent most of her life trying to suppress the desire to fidget while she spent long hours meditating. Speaking of meditating, she had tried that, of course, but the constant drone of the teacher's voice was too much of a distraction. She was used to short periods of relative peace punctuated by loud noises, usually caused by the other Titans, not a continuous irritant.

Part of her boredom was due to the fact that she already _knew_ all this stuff, or at least a _version_ of it. She knew the interesting version, too, not this boring crap with nothing but dates and singular events, as detached from reality as…well, Raven couldn't think of anything more detached from reality than this drivel that was currently substituting for history. It was like trying to think of the world without colour, and shape, and solidity, and…

_Ugh!_ Raven thought. _This is a story filled with drama, political intrigue, battles, betrayal, and murder! How is even _possible_ to make this uninteresting?_

"Miss Roth? Do you know the answer?" the teacher asked, breaking through Raven's thoughts. Raven looked up in shock.

_Wait, he's asking particular students now?_ she thought. _When did _that_ start?_

"Um…Brutus?" Raven said, lamely.

"Very good. Now, moving on…" the teacher said, and Raven tuned him out again.

_Whew. That was close,_ she thought. _Good thing this is so predictable._

Raven's thoughts were interrupted by the welcome sound of the bell, signifying the end of the period. She met up with Robin and Beast Boy as they left the room.

"Okay, okay, I can do this!" Beast Boy said. "I've made it through English and History already, and now it's lunch! Awesome! The day is half over!"

"Yeah, but after lunch is Phys. Ed. and calculus," Robin said, and Beast Boy shuddered.

"Oh, man, I hope we're not playing murderball or anything," he said. Raven cocked an eyebrow at him.

"What, no particular requests for Calculus?" she asked.

"Only that it not happen," Beast Boy replied.

**OOO**

The three Titans had finally gotten their lunch at the cafeteria, and now faced the inevitable difficulty of finding a place to sit. They eventually happened across the Holy Grail of high school lunch hours—a free table. They sat and ate in silence, although Raven had to stare Beast Boy down a few times when he looked like he was going to start talking.

Suddenly, Robin felt something cold and wet hit him in the back of the head and slide down his back. He turned to look and saw what seemed to be the remains of a ball of ice cream melting on the floor behind him. Raucous laughter came from across the room, and Robin looked up to see Garrett and his goons almost doubled over in amusement. Garrett had a bowl of ice cream in front of him, and was holding a spoon backwards, catapult style.

"You like that, you commie bitch?" Garrett shouted. "You're _dead_ in gym!"

"Making friends already, I see," Raven asked. Robin groaned.

"Yeah, right," he said.

Raven smirked, and then caught sight of her shy neighbour, Catharine, walking along the aisle between the cafeteria tables holding her tray of food. Something about her seemed odd, though—the nervous look that Raven had seen yesterday was gone, replaced by a confident, even _superior_ air. Raven frowned, but shrugged it off and pointed Catharine out to the boys.

"So that's your high-strung neighbour, eh?" Robin said. "Call her over. We might be able to find out what she meant when she told you there was something strange about this school."

"Don't rush her, though—she's pretty skittish," Raven said, and called out to Catherine.

Catherine just seemed to ignore her, until Raven tapped her shoulder as she passed their table.

"Hey, Catharine, remember me? Grace? Come on, why don't you sit here with us?" Raven said. Catharine made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat, and looked at Raven like she had just asked her to sit and eat lunch with slugs or something.

"Yeah, right. Who'd want to sit with _you_ losers?" she said. She turned her back to Raven and walked off, eventually sitting with who Raven still referred to as the pop bitches. Raven stared after the girl for a moment, lost in complete confusion.

"She didn't seem all that skittish to me," said Robin, one eyebrow raised. "Are you sure that was the right girl?"

"Yeah, that was her," Raven said, still confused. "She was acting totally different from the way she was yesterday…"

"Maybe she has an evil twin!" Beast Boy piped up.

"Yeah, and only the evil twin goes to class, right?" Raven said, snapped out of her confusion by the chance to pick Beast Boy apart.

"Sure, why not?" Beast Boy said. "If I had an evil twin, _I'd_ make him go to class for me!"

"I'm not even going to begin mentioning the holes in that explanation," Robin said. "Besides, it might just be that puts up a front during school so she doesn't attract attention, or maybe her behaviour last night was an exception, and this is what she's really like."

Raven wasn't convinced, though. She stared a little longer at Catharine's back where she sat with the pop bitches, who, surprisingly, seemed to have accepted her, but then shook her head and turned back to her lunch.

**OOO**

_Dear merciful Azar, why did it have to be aerobics? And to shitty upbeat music, no less,_ Raven thought. The girls' gym teacher was trying to convince her to take part, but Raven had said that she would rather just run laps, if she had to do something at all.

"But all the other girls are doing it!" the teacher said. She was in her late twenties, although she would most likely continue telling people that until she was well into her thirties. She was a little on the short side, and was fairly muscular, although she still remained quite feminine. Her outfit, consisting of sweatpants, a hoodie, and a whistle on a string around her neck completed her image as virtually _the_ stereotypical girls' gym teacher.

"That's true. However, most of the other girls here smoke, drink, and have underage sex. Should I do _that_, too?" Raven said. Flustered, and unused to having to deal with someone as intelligent (not to mention sarcastic) as Raven, the teacher just sputtered for a moment.

"Look, what I really need to work on is my stamina," Raven continued. "Therefore, I think that just running laps would be better for me right now."

"But…" the teacher began, but Raven interrupted her.

"Or, you could force me to do aerobics and I could take every opportunity to make your life as difficult as possible," she said. "Which will it be?"

The teacher's shoulders slumped as she realized that she had been defeated.

"Fine, run some laps," the teacher said. "But I'll be coming out to the track to check on you every once in a while."

"Yeah, yeah," Raven said, and took off for the outdoor track.

On the other side of the large gymnasium, the boys' class was engaging in various activities. It was basically free exercise time, so they were all engaging in their specialties. Beast Boy had found one of those little wheeled board things that are so popular with elementary school kids despite the necessary learning curve involved in order to stop running over their own fingers. After only a few minutes of whizzing around the gym riding the thing like a skateboard and bouncing off of anything or any_one_ who happened to get in his way, the boys' gym teacher had taken it away from him, and Beast Boy was now standing in line waiting for his turn on the springboard.

Robin, on the other hand, had immediately homed in on the gymnastics equipment, and had been on the rings for the last ten minutes straight. There was nobody else who wanted to use them, most of the boys being too busy playing basketball or screwing around on the springboard, so Robin had been free to defy as many laws of physics and biomechanics as he wanted. He was up to two minutes of holding himself straight upside down with his arms stretched completely perpendicular to his body when Garrett took notice of him.

"Hey, commie boy, why don't you try a real man's sport?" Garrett sneered from around his mouth guard. He was on the wrestling mat, currently holding a smaller boy in a full Nelson. Robin ignored him, and calmly launched himself upwards and let go of the rings, only to grab onto them again after performing a full back flip. The boys' gym teacher, who had been watching Robin intently, nearly swallowed his whistle. Garrett, however, did not appreciate this display of skill, and continued to taunt Robin.

"Maybe you should join the girls' class, if you like gymnastics so much," Garrett called, ignoring the boy he was wrestling, who was desperately trying to tap out. "You're like some kind of circus freak!"

At this, Robin paused for a moment, and then let himself drop to the mat below. He turned to glare at Garrett.

"You want to wrestle? Fine," Robin growled, and picked up a mouth guard and padded helmet.

Garrett grinned wolfishly, and let go of his victim. The relieved boy quickly dashed off the mat, threw off his safety equipment, and ran to get in line at the springboard. Robin stepped onto the mat, taking note of the large white circle drawn on it.

"So, what rules are we using?" he asked. "Five second pin or driven out of the circle?"

"Yeah, sure," said Garrett with a grin. "Just to warn you, I'm the varsity wrestling team captain."

"Whatever," Robin said, standing at ease a few feet away from Garrett.

Angered by Robin's casual tone, Garrett charged. Robin sidestepped easily, and Garrett had to stop himself quickly to keep from running out of the circle. He turned and charged at Robin again. Again, Robin sidestepped, but this time he caught Garrett's wrist as he passed, turning his motion into a deft aikido throw. Garrett flipped over and landed hard on his back, only a few feet from the edge of the circle. He got back to his feet with a growl.

"Hmph," Garrett snorted. "Trying to throw me out, eh? Well, you can do that, if you want to win like a pansy. Why don't you try actually grappling?" Robin shrugged.

"Okay," he said, and dropped into a loose ready stance.

Garrett snarled and charged again at Robin. Expecting him to dodge again, Garrett was surprised when Robin actually moved into his attack, shattering his forward momentum with his shoulder and hip before Garrett could bring his own attack to bear on him. Robin grabbed his arm and moved to throw him judo style over his hip. Garrett prepared to turn the throw to his advantage, but was surprised again when Robin actually spun him a full three-sixty so he landed on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Robin dropped onto Garrett's back, and casually counted to five as Garrett struggled to break free, but Robin only let him go after completing the count.

"Well, it looks like I won," Robin said with a satisfied smile as he stood up. Garrett growled as he got to his feet.

"You got lucky," Garrett said.

"What, all three times?" Robin asked innocently. Garrett growled again.

"How about some boxing? You won't be so cocky after I beat the shit out of you, commie boy," he said, and went to get two pairs of boxing gloves. Robin glanced questioningly at the gym teacher, but he just shrugged.

_Right. He's a rich kid, so he can do whatever he wants,_ Robin thought. _The teacher won't dare break it up if Garrett really gets violent, so I'll have to take care of him myself._

Garrett threw one pair of the boxing gloves at Robin and put his own on.

"Just on the wrestling mat?" Robin asked, and Garrett gave an affirmative grunt. "Are we treating the edges of the mat as the boundary of the ring?" Another grunt.

"Okay, then," Robin said as he stepped back onto the mat. "Let's get this started."

Garrett once again charged at Robin, but this time he came in swinging. Robin ducked under a right hook and planted a light jab on Garrett's ribs. This only enraged Garrett even further, and he turned and charged again. Robin dodged several wild swings, and then landed another jab, harder than the first one, on Garrett's chin—Garrett had a slight advantage in reach, but Robin's sense of timing and distance was honed by years of crimefighting, as well as extensive combat training under Batman. Garrett threw a hard right, but Robin spun away from it, planting a neat backhand across Garrett's face that spun the taller boy around.

Garrett shook his head to clear the spots floating in front of his eyes, and decided that it would be wiser to let Robin come to him. He assumed a defensive stance, his fists held up to cover his face, his elbows kept tight to his ribs. Robin grinned, and launched his own attack.

_Time to show this jackass how it's done…_

Robin threw a quick feint at Garrett's face, hitting his upheld fists lightly. Garrett immediately threw another of his hard rights for Robin's face, which he had left exposed, but Robin was no longer where Garrett thought he was. Robin had dropped into a low kung fu stance, letting Garrett's punch pass only an inch over his head, brushing his spiky hair, before rising up into a hard uppercut that snapped Garrett's head back and threw him backwards several feet. Garrett landed on his back and lay still—he had been knocked unconscious.

The gym teacher picked this time to intervene, and told Robin to go hit the showers while he tried to bring Garrett around. Robin shrugged and headed for the locker room, feeling the stares of the other boys on his back as he went. Then he heard Beast Boy's voice and smiled.

"Whoohoo! Who da man?"

**OOO**

"Cyborg, can you hear me?" Robin whispered into his communicator. The three infiltrating Titans were in the deserted library again, but he thought that it would be better to be too safe than to be caught.

"Cyborg, this is Robin, checking in," Robin said, and finally Cyborg's face appeared on the communicator screen.

"Aww, man, couldn't you have waited until a commercial was on?" Cyborg complained. Robin groaned.

"_Please_ try to take this seriously, Cyborg," he said. "I took _your_ undercover mission seriously."

"Yeah, but you take _everything_ seriously!" Cyborg said.

"He's got you there," Beast Boy said, and Robin glared at him.

"Anyway, how are things going at the tower?" Robin asked. "Any more possessions?"

"Actually, no," Cyborg said. "It's been really quiet."

"What?" Robin said, surprised. "Not even _one_ possession? They were happening two or three times a day when we left!"

"Yeah, I know. They just stopped all of a sudden, almost as soon as you left," Cyborg said. "It's really weird."

"Hmmmm…that _is_ weird…" Robin mused.

"So, anyways, Starfire and I are really, _really_ bored right now," Cyborg said. "There's some good TV on now, but we resorted to playing Scrabble earlier. Man, Star kicks ass at that game. I think she might just be making up words, though."

"Oooh! Ooooh!" cried Beast Boy. "If you're looking for something to do, can you do my calculus homework?" Raven smacked him on the back of the head.

"Don't be stupid," she said.

"Actually, some nice easy high school calculus would make for an interesting change right now," Cyborg said.

"See?" Beast Boy said, but then frowned. "Wait, what do you mean 'easy'? This stuff is _hard_, man!" Robin sighed.

"Okay, getting back to business, we're going to go scout out the lower levels of the school tonight," he said. "We'll check in again tomorrow night. See you then."

"Copy that," Cyborg said, half-jokingly, and they cut off the transmission.

**OOO**

Later that night, the three Titans were exploring the mysterious bottom level that Beast Boy had found. Raven had teleported them all down there, and they had gone their separate ways, Robin to check on the locked doors down the hall, Beast Boy to try to get behind the big door, and Raven to see what she could find out about the weird security equipment that Beast Boy had seen during his reconnaissance.

Raven teleported herself into the security room in astral form, and seeing that there were no guards around, she blocked off the single security camera in the room and allowed herself to fully materialize. She stared for a moment at the wall of security monitors, but found herself drawn over to the odd piece of machinery in the corner of the room.

_This must be what Beast Boy was talking about,_ Raven thought. _It certainly doesn't look like standard issue equipment._

She reached out and gently touched the machine's casing, and got a blast of raw emotion for her trouble. She doubled over in pain, trying desperately to steady her mind. After a few seconds of concentration and chanting, Raven had succeeded in calming herself sufficiently to continue.

_It's like there's just pure emotion stored up in that thing, like it's a battery of some kind,_ she thought. _But where is it coming from?_

Raven steeled herself to probe the piece of machinery again, and dove back in. Fighting the initial disorientation, she sent her mind along the pathways that were pouring the raw emotion into the machine. She followed one in particular, and ended up with what seemed to be a view of one of the hallways in the school. Her eyes widened in shock, and she pulled her mind back out of the machine and looked at the security monitors. Sure enough, the exact same view that she had just seen was displayed on one of the monitors.

_That must be what the extra wires on the video cameras are for,_ she thought. _They're collecting emotions through those cameras somehow, but why would they…_

Raven's thoughts were interrupted by voices coming from outside of the room. She quickly slipped back into astral form and phased into the wall as a pair of guards stepped into the room. She watched from inside the wall as they chatted with each other, casually watching the monitors. One made his way over to the emotion battery, apparently to check that it was working properly. He began to turn to go back to watching the monitors with the other guard, but he paused and stared at the wall where Raven was hiding.

_He can't see me, can he?_ Raven thought.

_Yes, I can, little one,_ said a voice in her head, and her eyes widened in shock.

The guard grinned nastily, and his eyes turned blood red. He reached out, moving faster than Raven could follow, and put his hand _through_ the wall, catching her by the throat.

**OOO**

After being dropped off by Raven, Robin had used everything he knew about gymnastics and stealth techniques to either avoid or disable the security cameras in the halls as he checked the locked rooms that Beast Boy had seen earlier. Most of them were completely empty, a few of them contained some tables and chairs, and even fewer contained piles of boxes, none of which held anything particularly interesting or helpful.

Robin was just about to leave one of the box-filled rooms when he heard voices outside the door. He dove behind a stack of large boxes just as the door opened and two men entered the room. They didn't look like security guards—they both wore long robes, with hoods that hid most of their faces in shadow. Robin kept quiet and listened to their conversation.

"…causing disruptions over the whole city," one was saying. "The boss figured that if we didn't clamp down on these unregulated possessions we'd attract attention. We couldn't outright stop them, so we just performed a spell to direct them in a way that could be controlled."

"That's pretty smart," the other said. "The boss really knows what he's doing."

"Yeah, no kidding," the first one said. "So anyways, we started out with some 'enhancements' to the security force.."

"Possessed guards? Very cool," the other interrupted.

"Heh, yeah. We've also been able to shut up a few of the more nosy students," the first one continued. "There was this one girl, she wasn't real mouthy or anything, she was a bit of a nerd, actually, but she was starting to catch on. So anyway, we grabbed her, stuck a demon in her, and voila! We have ourselves our very own spy in the student body."

"Nice," said the second. "And speaking of spies…"

The second robed man threw up his hand in Robin's general direction, and Robin suddenly felt like he was being gripped in a giant invisible fist. Somehow he was thrown forward, knocking over the stack of boxes he had been hiding behind, and sliding to a halt at the feet of the two robed men. The second man's grin was just barely visible in the shadows cast by his hood.

"I _thought_ I felt someone else in here with us…"

Robin swore under his breath and reached for his communicator.

**OOO**

Beast Boy was crawling through the ducts in the form of a rat, nursing his mouth a little.

_Okay, so gnawing through the wire mesh blocking off the ducts leading behind that big door might not have been the _best_ idea,_ he thought. _I hope the team has a dental plan._

He had been following the duct for a few minutes when he finally came to the end. It was blocked off with yet more wire mesh, and Beast Boy groaned.

_Crap. Well, there's no way I'm gnawing through again, so…_

The wire screen burst into the room, landing with a clatter on the stone floor, followed closely by the small, rolled up green armadillo that had smashed its way through. Beast Boy morphed into a fly halfway to the floor, and began buzzing around the room, exploring. It was an immense room, with a very high ceiling, and a few strategically placed candles and torches providing ample, if slightly flickering, light. It looked like the whole room had been carved out of the bedrock. A huge pentagram was drawn in the centre of the room, with a big rock at the centre, with what looked like chains bolted into it. A platform, carved out of the rock like the rest of the room, overlooked the pentagram, and was adorned with various arcane looking artefacts and symbols.

_Whoa. This place looks like Raven's dream vacation or something,_ Beast Boy thought.

Just as he was heading back to the ducts to make his way out into the halls again to rejoin the other Titans, he heard his communicator go off. Beast Boy quickly looked around for any cameras, but he didn't see any, so he morphed back into human form to answer the call. Robin's face appeared on the small screen, looking anxious.

"Oh, hey, Robin, what's up?" Beast Boy asked.

"No time to explain, Beast Boy!" Robin shouted at him. "Go get Cyborg and Starfire! I can't get in touch with Raven—I think they already have her."

"Wait, who?" Beast Boy cried.

"No time! Get the others! Go!" Robin yelled through the communicator. Beast Boy heard Robin swear, and then the communicator went blank. It had lost the connection.

"Robin? Robin! Crap!" Beast Boy said, but his attempts to reach Robin were cut short when the door to the big room burst open, and half a dozen robed figures swarmed into the room.

Beast Boy leapt into the air, turned into a sparrow, and dodged a few fireballs thrown by the robed men.

_Oh, great, they just _had_ to know magic,_ he thought as he avoided another salvo of alarmingly accurate magical projectiles and dived head first into the ducts at full speed.

_-END CHAPTER NINE-_

**Author's Note:** Here's an extra long one to make up for all the time I left in between updates. Sorry about that, but as you'll see in what I have to say in this author's note, I've been hitting some major snags.

Well, I've seen a few little tidbits of information about the fourth season of Teen Titans, although none of the episodes themselves. All I have to say about them, with regards to Stalker, and indeed all of what I call Da Plan, is this: _balls_. I actually have a string of expletives on hand that, while they certainly express my actual sentiments more accurately, would probably be inappropriate to post. Some of them are even in another language (one of the benefits of having a Dutch father who insists on fixing the plumbing around the house by himself—other cultures are great, aren't they?).

Apparently, season four will have some heavy Raven stuff happening, and most of it will most likely contradict my ideas in this story, as well as Da Plan as a whole. This kind of thing always seems to happen to me: I come up with some neat stuff on my own about something I like, put some effort into it, and then get all those neat ideas deftly undercut by new developments in that something within, at most, a month or two. Perhaps what irks me the most is that since I haven't seen any of the new episodes, I don't even know exactly _how_ I'm being undercut in this case, nor can I creatively change stuff around to make it fit together better. I don't even know enough to make any half-assed predictions about the way things will go in the cartoon—I only know that there will be some Raven-centred stuff involving Slade.

All this, along with some problems I've run into with the long term planning of Da Plan (specifically, the fact that I can't seem to see my way clear to giving Raven, or even most of the other characters, a happy ending, which is what I _want_ to do), means that my desire to continue with Stalker and the rest of Da Plan has been waning considerably over the last few weeks. The thing about Stalker is that the whole thing is set up to lead into future stories that are part of Da Plan, and would leave a definite sense of incompleteness if left on its own, like leaving the last note out when playing a musical scale. I know I said that I hated leaving things incomplete (and I do), and I know that I don't necessarily have to stay in total agreement with the cartoon, fan fiction being what it is, but I am still sorely tempted to have the very next chapter consist entirely of "And then Trigon showed up and killed them all, the end." A cop-out, to be sure, but when my dislike for leaving things unfinished is rapidly being matched and even overtaken by my frustration with the story I'm writing, well, that's not the best of situations anyways, and a cop-out might be the best way for me to come out of this with my sanity relatively intact. Besides, even if I finish off Stalker, there will probably be the greater sense of incompleteness I mentioned earlier. I probably _will_ finish off Stalker, though.

So, to recap:

1) Da Plan is my general scheme for a few linked Teen Titans stories, including Duplomatic and Stalker, eventually leading up to Raven's final conflict with Trigon, and then skipping ahead five years after Trigon's defeat to the next time Raven sees the other Titans (part of which is shown in my little preview thingy that was a temporary chapter 8).

2) I have the funny feeling that season four of the Teen Titans cartoon is going to brutally maul all my carefully thought out ideas for Da Plan.

3) I am an anal-retentive bastard who wants to try to stay as close to the cartoon as possible.

4) I'm starting to get discouraged with Da Plan anyway, and would actually much rather get started on a couple of new ideas I have that don't go into such a pivotal conflict as Raven vs. Trigon.

5) I will try to find a way to end Stalker satisfactorily without needing to go further on into Da Plan—I already have a few ideas. However, I will not go any further on into Da Plan. Please note: when I say 'end Stalker satisfactorily', I mean satisfactorily to _me_. You might not like the way I end it, but if that's the case you can always write your own version that ends the way you want. This is, after all, a fan fiction site, so you can do whatever you want, really.

6) Finally, cursing in Dutch is fun.

Right, so enough of that. On to respond to some reviews. (Oh, and yes, I _am_ doing a bit of an "Another Brick in the Wall" theme with the titles of these past two chapters.)

**To My Reviewers:** First, just in general: I am _so_ sorry about all this going back on Da Plan crap. I know I promised a lot of you some stuff later on in Da Plan, but I'd much rather give you guys some _decent_ stories that I can really get behind. So, yeah, treat pretty much everything I've said until now about how great Da Plan was going to be as damn dirty lies. Lies, I say!

Blackbird: Well, it looks like a response to the preview won't really be necessary, at least on the level of content (although comments on the stylistic stuff will always be appreciated). What Robin ended up doing to Garrett is pretty much what I had wanted to do to all the jerks and idiots I knew all through high school, but never had the skill (or the cahones) to actually do. I'm the kind of person who always, _always_ gets caught if I do something bad, since I'm not used to it, and even if I didn't get caught, I would actually make myself sick with guilt. Needless to say my mom had no problems with me as a kid. Hey, I actually like some of Billy Joel's stuff! Although he _is_ a bit of a jerk…cough, cough, concert in Russia, cough. Celebrity tantrums just aren't cool. And it isn't a Hellmouth _per se_, but I guess you could say it's a do-it-yourself Hellmouth. Ah, hell, you'll see.


	10. Teacher, Leave Those Kids Alone

(Disclaimer: I don't own the Titans. The superhero team, the football team, or the mythical beings—take your pick.)

_-CHAPTER TEN (finally)-_

When Raven awoke, the first thing she noticed was that she was restrained, tied to a chair by the feel of it. The rope was quite tight and the knots were tied well. Not only that, but the chair was made of metal, so the usual "break the chair and escape" trick wouldn't work. Despite all this, Raven scoffed inwardly at these precautions—she was a superhero, after all, and a simple rope could never hold up against her powers. However, before her smirk had even fully formed on her face, she noticed the second thing: namely, that her powers didn't seem to be working. Needless to say, this caused Raven some consternation. She struggled briefly before calming herself enough to focus on getting her powers to work, but no matter how hard she tried, nothing happened. In fact, the harder she tried, the hotter a slim collar around her neck became (this was the third thing she noticed, for those who are keeping track). She craned her neck to see it, but the collar fit her snugly, and remained out of view.

"Faust's necklace," a voice said from the shadows that surrounded Raven, causing her to start. "Made of purest silver and ritually consecrated with various holy oils, it is anathema to demons of all sorts, rendering those forced to wear it completely powerless. Apparently it works on half-demons, as well. Struggling makes it worse, I'm told, but I have no personal experience with it."

"Who are you?" Raven asked. Her question was met with a chuckle, and Principal Baker stepped out of the shadows, a grin on his face.

"I suppose I shouldn't have expected you to recognize my voice after only one meeting, but still, I'm disappointed," he said. "Your reputation seemed to promise more."

Raven squinted a little to see into the shadows, making out the regular edges of a small room in the darkness, and the outline of a door behind where Baker stood.

"I'm still in the school, aren't I?" she said. "One of your little basement—what?—torture rooms?"

"Oh, they're not really torture rooms, my dear girl," Baker said. "They _are_ used for that, of course, but we mostly just use them for whatever little things we need them for. When we can't use any of the more…_visible_ rooms, that is."

"So you're the one behind all this," Raven said. "The possessions—they're all fallout from some massive summoning spell you're performing."

"Hah, yes, yes. Very good," Baker said, as he circled around behind Raven's chair. "You didn't disappoint me there, at least. Do you know what I'm summoning, though?" Raven remained silent.

"Hmph. I didn't think so," Baker said, as he continued to circle around Raven. "It's ironic, really, that you, of all people, should get caught up in all this. You see, all this has it's origin with your father." Raven gasped.

"What do you know about my father?" she said.

"What, Trigon the Terrible? Oh, please, don't look so surprised," Baker said. "You and your unusual parentage are far more well-known than you think in the magical community. There's a certain degree of celebrity that goes along with being the child of a dimension-conquering personification of evil." Raven scowled and looked away.

"Well, now, that's hardly a way to act," Baker said, his grin widening. "Anyway, as I said, my little plan has it's origin with your father, for, you see, he is gathering an army, as any conqueror must. An army of demons. However, he is not yet moving—he is biding his time, mustering his forces, and so on. Now, your average demon is not exactly a patient creature, and this waiting game that Trigon is playing is wearing thin with many of his 'soldiers'. Most do not act on this, of course, terrified of Trigon as they are, but there is a small fraction of his forces that, if the opportunity presented itself, would gladly split from his control and serve a new master."

"And that's where you and your summoning spell come in, I presume," Raven said. Baker smiled at her.

"But of course. I provide these fractious elements of Trigon's army with a way into our dimension, long before Trigon himself would make his move, and in return, they obey my commands," he said.

"An army of deserters…of course…" Raven whispered to herself.

"What was that?" Baker asked, leaning closer to hear.

"Nothing," Raven said. "But don't you think there's a flaw in your plan?"

"How so?" Baker said, a quizzical expression on his face.

"Well, you said that these demons you would be summoning are only a small fraction of Trigon's full army," Raven said. "If Trigon is gathering an army to conquer the world, do you really think that only a fraction of that army would be enough to do anything much?"

"Oh, you disappoint me again, Raven," Baker said. "Surely you must realize that your father's ambitions do not stop with Earth alone. His goal is nothing less than the complete subjugation of our entire dimension, and that's even ignoring his obvious designs on Azarath. Even the smallest fraction of an army capable of conquering an entire universe would be more than enough to, say, take over this one silly little planet." Raven was silent again.

"But enough of all that," Baker said. "What interests me most right now is how you found out about my little plan. It was the possessions, wasn't it?" Raven stayed silent.

"Ah, I thought so," Baker continued. "You must have just found the Gallian centre of the pattern of demon appearances, which, I suppose, led you here. A pity that we didn't find a way to channel those unregulated possessions until two days ago."

"Channel the possessions?" Raven asked, and her eyes widened. "The way Katherine changed—you put a demon in her, didn't you?"

"Katherine Massey? Oh, yes, I believe she is, or rather _was_, your neighbour in the dormitory," Baker said. "Yes, she poked around where she shouldn't have, so I arranged for her to be possessed to keep her quiet. It's really a wonderful little trick, and one that has allowed me to—how shall I put this?—_upgrade_ several of my guards, as I'm sure you found out." Raven shuddered, remembering the way the eyes of the guard who caught her glowed red.

"Incidentally, I believe one of your little friends overheard a few of my apprentices talking about precisely that before he was caught," Baker said. "Oh, and while we're talking about him…"

Raven heard the door to the room opening, and Baker stepped aside as Robin appeared out of the darkness. He was unrestrained, and Raven's heart nearly skipped a beat.

"Robin! Robin, quick, untie me!" she said, but Robin did not respond. "Robin?"

"Not exactly, little one," Robin said, but there was something different about his voice. Raven gasped as his masked eyes suddenly began to glow red.

"No…" she whispered, and Baker chuckled.

"Yes, he will make a fine addition to my army," he said. "To see one of their so-called heroes turn against them will have such a delightful effect on the morale of my future subjects."

"And I suppose you're going to stick a demon in me, too?" Raven said.

"Actually, no," Baker said. "While Robin was a perfect candidate for possession, you, my dear, are already half demon, so you would naturally reject any normal demon's attempt to possess you. That collar keeps you from using your powers, but it does nothing to change what you are, so there's really nothing I can do in that regard."

"So what _are_ you going to do with me? Keep me tied up here until I die of boredom?" Raven asked.

"Well, that was a question that I pondered for some time," Baker said. "However, after a little thought, I found the perfect use for you."

"And that would be…?" Raven said, becoming frustrated with Baker's often roundabout manner of speaking.

"There was this scroll on demons I read, oh, years ago now," he said. "Very informative. One of the things it said was that, while demons greatly enjoy feeding on human souls, they enjoy the souls of other demons even more, if they can get them. It's the reason they fight amongst themselves so much, and why they hardly ever unite unless forced to by a being as powerful as Trigon."

"Could you _please_ get to the point, before I actually _do_ die of boredom?" Raven said.

"Ah, yes, of course," Baker said. "Well, you see, while you are not a full demon, a half-demon's soul _should_ be more of a delicacy than that of a normal human. So I figured I would use you as a sacrifice to attract more demons." Raven paled.

"A sacrifice?" she asked hesitantly.

"Oh yes. While the spell does not specifically call for it, sacrificing a virgin can never hurt a summoning, now can it?" Baker said. "I presume that you _are_ a virgin."

"Oh, that is _so_ none of your business," Raven said. Baker waved his hand dismissively.

"It hardly matters. You see, it gets even better," he said. "When I thought about it a bit more, I realized that I wouldn't be giving the demons just _any_ half-demon—I'd be giving them the daughter of Trigon, who, as I said before, they are not exactly on the best of terms with, to say the least. Add to that the fact that you are believed to be the key to Trigon's entry into our dimension, and that killing you might very well deny him his great ambition, and you have a morsel that I doubt any demon could pass up."

"You won't get away with this," Raven said. "You only caught Robin and me—Beast Boy escaped, and he'll bring help. They'll stop your spell."

"And, incidentally, your sacrifice?" Baker said, a grin on his face.

"Well, yeah," Raven said with a shrug.

"Hmmm. In that case, they had better hurry, since the final ceremony begins in about…" Baker checked his watch. "…oh, twenty minutes. You, subdue her so we can get her ready for the ceremony."

The possessed Robin nodded and stepped forward, an evil smile on his face.

"Robin, don't do this!" Raven pleaded. "Fight it, Robin!"

"Shush, little one," Robin said. "It will all be over very soon."

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid…" Raven began, but she was interrupted by Robin delivering a quick, hard chop to the side of her head, and she slumped forward against her restraints, unconscious.

**OOO**

Raven woke up again with a serious headache, and it only got worse when she took stock of her situation: she was wearing a rather short, gauzy white dress, and was chained to a rock in a stereotypically suggestive "damsel in distress chained to a rock" pose, her arms chained back so she had little choice but to stick her chest out.

_Great. Baker's an evil sorcerer AND a sicko_, Raven thought.

"Ah, so you've woken up. Wonderful," Baker's voice said, and Raven cast about for a moment before locating him—he was standing on a raised stone platform at one end of the massive chamber Raven now found herself in, smiling smugly, with what seemed like the only door out directly behind him.

"I understand that demons always prefer for their prey to be fully aware," Baker continued. "Probably some kind of sadistic instinct, I suppose."

"Speaking of sadistic, is _this_ really necessary?" Raven asked, indicating with a nod of her head her chains and attire. Baker thought for a moment.

"Probably not, no, but it's traditional," he said. "Besides, it amuses me. Why, do you not like your dress?"

"Well, it's a little, um, _revealing_," Raven said. "The distinct curve to this rock doesn't help much either. And _please_ don't tell me that you were the one who changed me into this get-up."

"Oh, no, no, no. I _do_ have _some_ sense of propriety," Baker said. "I made certain to only have my female apprentices attend to your clothing."

"That fills me with relief to no end," Raven deadpanned, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "You and your _male_ apprentices still get the benefit of their efforts, though, I see." She looked around at the loose ring of robed figures that surrounded her, catching not a few leers from under the hoods.

_Ugh. I'd chalk it up to their warped education under Baker, but I don't have nearly that much faith in humanity_, Raven thought. _Besides, Baker probably purposefully chose the degenerates to be his apprentices._

"Well, now, I wouldn't put it _quite_ that way, my dear girl," Baker said, looking hurt. "I do not usually take pleasure from the distress of scantily-clad teenaged girls. Your friend, however, does seem to be enjoying himself."

Baker gestured behind him, and Robin stepped forward, his eyes still glowing red. He had a sadistic smirk on his face. Raven looked away, fighting back tears.

"Well, with the small talk out of the way, let's get to the main event, shall we?" Baker said, gesturing expansively with his arms. "I'd hate for us to be rudely interrupted, as it were." He turned to address his apprentices.

"Begin the ceremony!" Baker boomed, and the robed figures began chanting in unison. Raven felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as she felt the ambient magic in the room suddenly increase dramatically.

_They've probably been preparing this spell for weeks,_ Raven thought. _The magical field is all ready, now it's just a matter of focusing it all into this room to create the summoning portal itself._

Several dozen candles, arranged into a complex pattern of intersecting circles surrounding Raven and the chanting apprentices, burst into flame all at once. Raven looked around again, taking in the details of the massive room.

_Candles and chalk—no, ash—arranged in patterns on the floor, it looks like a variation on the Harraneshi placement, designed to swirl the magic up into a vortex that will drill through reality at it's apex…there!_ she thought, looking straight up. Virtually invisible to the untrained eye, a wisp of what looked like unnaturally deep red flame was beginning to form just less than fifty feet above Raven's head, up near the ceiling of the massive chamber. It was still faint, and she had found it more by feel than by actually using her eyes, but Raven knew that it would soon bloom into full visibility as the magical field that had covered the entire city collapsed into just this one room.

_With that kind of power, even the relatively unconcentrated walls and edges of the vortex will probably be visible,_ Raven thought, marveling at the sheer magnitude of power involved despite herself. _Hmmm…I wonder how big this portal is going to be? Bigger than this little circle of Baker's apprentices. Once the demons show up, they're toast. I guess they're expendable, but do they know that?_

"Hey, you _do_ know what's going to happen once you complete this spell, don't you?" Raven said to the nearest robed figure. "Big portal, demons arriving—do you have any idea what demons do to humans, especially if they have a little magical skill?"

The apprentices did not respond, and continued to chant. Raven pressed on.

"They eat relatively weak mages like you like popcorn. _Your_ power certainly won't be enough to stand up to them," she continued. "Do you think your master will save you? Even if he cares enough about you to try, he won't have time—once the portal is open, the demons will be on you guys before he can even get a single syllable of a spell out. Everyone in this circle will be dead, I assure you."

This seemed to get through to a few of the apprentices, as their chanting became uncertain for a moment, but Baker had been paying attention, and he wasn't about to let Raven foil his plans now.

"She is lying to you, my children!" he shouted from his platform. "The only one who has any reason to fear the demons is _her_, for as soon as they appear, they will be under my control, and as my chosen apprentices, you will have dominion over them as well. You will be the generals in my grand army!"

This seemed to bolster the confidence of the apprentices, and they began chanting again with renewed vigour. Raven groaned inwardly.

"No! He's lying to you!" she shouted. "This is someone who wants to take over the world! Do you really think he'll want to share power with you? He's just…"

Raven was interrupted by a deafening roar as a circle of red flame erupted all around, quickly whirling up into an immense glowing vortex. The candles had gone out, their mortal flames replaced by small eddies in the flow of the unearthly red flame, each centred exactly at the ends of each candle. As it reached the apex point, the stream of fire joined seamlessly with the single flame that had been floating there.

"Your efforts come too late, Raven of Azarath!" Baker shouted triumphantly over the roar of the magical vortex. "The spell is complete! The world is _mine_!"

Suddenly, the apex flame began to grow, becoming larger and larger as the vortex drained into it. Just as the last of the magic was absorbed into the now massive flame it contracted into a single point, bright white with a tinge of red around the edges. It then began slowly expanding out into a deep red disc, parallel to the floor of the chamber. Dark shapes appeared around the edges of the portal.

"Yes! Come, demons! Come to me, my army!" Baker roared. "I offer you all these souls—should you serve me, there will be many more!"

"_What!_ No, you said…" shouted one of the apprentices, but he was cut off as a black-skinned demon that looked like something directly out of a nightmare dropped out of the portal and eviscerated him as it landed. After a moment of shocked silence, the apprentices panicked, and several more demons took this as their cue, falling from the portal and landing amongst the robed figures. It was only a matter of seconds before Baker's erstwhile apprentices were all dead.

"Told ya so," Raven muttered to herself, but then she started as a particularly large demon with dark green skin and bat-like wings suddenly dropped to the chamber floor in front of her. It stared at her intently for a moment, and then turned to look at Baker.

"What about this one?" the demon growled. "I sense power in her."

"That, my friend, is a lovely young lady called Raven," Baker replied. "You would perhaps know her better as the daughter of Trigon the Terrible."

The demons all stared at her, first in shock, then in barely suppressed hunger. Baker smiled nastily before continuing.

"Do with her what you will," he said, and the demons began to close in. Raven closed her eyes tightly and gritted her teeth, bracing herself for the pain.

"I think not," a voice said, and Raven heard a whistling sound followed by several metallic clanks. She felt her chains loosen and fall away, and the collar dropped from around her neck. As she opened her eyes, she felt her powers surge through her body once more. The demons drew away from her, and Raven looked up to the platform where Baker was fuming. Beside him stood Robin, his masked eyes apparently back to normal, grinning widely.

"One word for you, Baker—_psyche!_" Robin shouted, and jumped down to the floor of the chamber, landing hard on a demon as he did so. Raven smiled.

"Real mature, Robin," she said, as she used her powers to slam two demons into a wall.

"Hey, we _are_ in a school," Robin shot back, striking another two in the head with his staff.

"How did you break free from the possession?" Raven asked. She had wrapped the chains that had formerly held her around one unfortunate demon and was using her powers to swing him like a wrecking ball.

"You know, these sutras are _very_ handy," Robin said, reaching under his shirt and pulling one of the sutras out while keeping an enraged demon at bay with the end of his staff. "If Batman taught me anything, it's to always be prepared."

"_ENOUGH!_" Baker roared. "Demons! Heed me! Come forth to destroy these interlopers! Show these children the true meaning of power!"

In response to Baker's call, hundreds of dark shapes appeared silhouetted in the red of the portal, and demons began pouring out by the dozen.

"Uh oh," Robin said, staring wide-eyed at the army coming towards him. "I think we're going to need back up…"

As if on cue, the door behind Baker exploded inward in a flash of green and blue. The smoke cleared, revealing Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy standing ready for battle.

"Huh. Ask and ye shall receive," Robin said with a grin. "Titans! _GO!_"

**OOO**

Several hundred feet above, Drakon stood outside on the grounds of Marsdale College. The wind whipped his hair and long coat around him. He smiled.

"They've started. I should probably get down there," Drakon said, and started walking towards the school's main doors. "Hey, Slither! Are you coming?"

A sibilant hiss was just audible over the howling wind.

"I don't care what kind of dead animal you've found, get your scaly ass over here!"

_-END CHAPTER TEN-_

**Author's Note:** This one in a bit of script format, because it amuses me! (I hope this is kosher with the rules about 'no script format', since the vast majority of this is a regular narrative. If it isn't, please let me know and I'll change it.)

**Sleeping Bag:** Right, so I've finally started writing this stuff again. Sorry for the delay.

**Raven:** You'd goddamn _better_ be sorry, bucko!

**Sleeping Bag: ** Bucko?

**Raven:** It seemed appropriate at the time.

**Robin:** Yeah, so why did it take so long?

**Sleeping Bag:** Well, I went through a fairly long period of not writing for some reason. I don't know why, really, I just didn't end up doing anything. Then, once I started up again, I wanted to finish off my other story, Split, first, because it only had one or two chapters left, while this one will probably have a few more. I also wanted to be able to focus on these ones exclusively.

**Raven:** In other words, you wanted to put off finishing this story as long as possible.

**Sleeping Bag:** That's cold.

**Beast Boy:** Yeah, she's like that sometimes. Usually happens for a few days every month or…

**Raven:** (bludgeons Beast Boy with some large heavy object)

**Sleeping Bag:** Yeah…um…right, so as I was saying, that's cold, but not necessarily untrue. As those who have read my last couple of author's notes for this story will know, my enthusiasm for this story has waned considerably. I am really only finishing it out of a sense of responsibility…

**Raven:** How noble of you.

**Sleeping Bag:** …but I am finishing it nonetheless, and I will try to do a good job of it and not cut any corners.

**Raven:** Not much like your other stories, then.

**Sleeping Bag:** (sighs) Could somebody _please_ shut Raven up? I like her, but seriously, sometimes she's just a bit much.

**Starfire:** (pulls out a tea bag) Raven! Over here, Raven! (tosses the tea bag) Go get it!

**Raven:** (runs off after the tea bag)

**Sleeping Bag:** Huh. You've done that before, I presume?

**Starfire:** Oh, yes. It works every time.

**Robin:** Can we focus a little, here?

**Sleeping Bag:** Sorry. Moving on, the observant will notice that the name of this story has changed. You might remember that little quasi-contest thing I had going where I asked for submissions of a new name for the story. While I haven't gone with any one suggestion verbatim, one of the major themes people included was watching, and variations on that. So, with my oftentimes minimalist sense of aesthetics, I went with just calling the story "Watched". So, if anyone is reading the whole story after I made the change, every time I say "Stalker", just substitute in "Watched" and everything will be fine.

**Beast Boy:** And what about your responses to your reviewers?

**Sleeping Bag:** Well, since it's been over a month since I put up the last chapter, I get the funny feeling that most of my reviewers will have forgotten what they wrote for that one, so for now I'll just say thanks for the reviews and leave it at that. Review responses will start up again next chapter.

**Robin:** Okay. Well, I think that about covers it.

**Sleeping Bag:** Yup.

**Cyborg:** Um…am I going to get any lines, here?

**Sleeping Bag:** Of course.

**Cyborg:** When?

**Sleeping Bag**: Just now. That was it.

**Cyborg:** Dang.


	11. Revelations

(Disclaimer: No, actually I don't own the Teen Titans. Don't worry, I get that all the time.)

_-CHAPTER ELEVEN-_

With an ease and precision that only a team of superheroes facing off against a horde of evil minions could be capable of, the two separate groups of Titans converged together, scything through countless lesser demons as they went. Even so, for every one they destroyed, dozens more poured out of the dimensional rift. The Titans were fighting a losing battle—naturally, Robin realized this quickly.

"Titans! We have to close that portal!" he shouted over the din of battle, striking down a demon with a swing of his staff as he did. "Raven! Any ideas?"

"A quick disruption spell should do it—keep them off me for a minute," Raven shouted back, and closed her eyes. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthoaa_AAAGH!_"

Raven dropped to the ground, clutching at her head. Pain shot through her, starting in her head and spreading down, like someone had unscrewed the top of her skull and poured in molten iron. Standing on his platform, Baker cackled with laughter.

"Did you really think I would just _let_ you do something as pitifully _obvious_ as that, dear girl?" he sneered. "You are powerful, I will give you that, but you have a distinct lack of finesse. All I have to do is reroute that power of yours back against you, and—voila!—no spell for you!" Baker began laughing again, more deranged than ever.

"Raven, are you alright?" Robin asked, his voice constricted with both concern and urgency as he parried a particularly nasty series of blows struck by a particularly ugly demon. Raven shook her head to clear it, calmed her mind, and allowed the pain to pass before speaking.

"I'm fine," she said, her voice still shaking slightly. "Baker set up a magical backlash—I didn't expect it, couldn't counter it in time."

"You need us to deal with him so you can do that disruption spell?" Cyborg asked over his shoulder as he blasted a winged demon out of the air.

"Yes! We can open up a can of the whoop ass upon his person!" Starfire cried, her sudden burst of enthusiasm causing her to overpower several of her starbolts, frying a half dozen demons instantly.

"No, no, I'll deal with him," Raven stated. She punched her fist into her other palm and a snarl formed on her face. "Strapping me to that damn rock—this is personal now."

"Yeah, nice dress, by the way," Beast Boy piped up. Raven glared at him in a way that promised certain and imminent pain, thoroughly applied, and he quickly went back to gnawing frantically on a large blue demon's leg in the form of a beaver—the demon, for its part, screamed like a five-year-old girl confronted with a particularly large spider.

"Go. We'll keep the demons busy for now," Robin grunted as he backflipped out of range of a burst of flame that shot out of a demon's mouth. The other Titans nodded in assent, and Raven sighed and collected her thoughts in preparation.

"Right," she said with finality. "I'll be right back."

Raven's eyes glowed white for a moment, and she floated up into the air, eventually coming to rest on Baker's platform, several feet from the insane sorcerer himself. Baker chuckled.

"Ah, defiance, child? I should have known," he sneered, an evil smile on his face. "But really, how do you expect to do anything against me? As I said, you're powerful, but I have experience on my side—I can finesse rings around you. I can counter any spell you can throw at me. Unless you can do something to surprise me, which I _sincerely_ doubt you can, you don't stand a chance against me." Raven arched an eyebrow quizzically.

"Something to surprise you, huh?" she asked, half to herself. She smiled nastily as a thought occurred to her. "Well, alright then. Here I come!"

With a shout, Raven charged at Baker, dark power surrounding her hands as she readied a magical blast. Baker only chuckled again.

"What, the Flame of Nartok? That's just _too_ easy. All I have to do is…" Baker began, in a mocking tone, but Raven interrupted him.

That is, she interrupted him by planting her foot squarely into his groin. Baker doubled over in pain and shock, but mostly pain, and every male who had been watching instinctively winced in sympathy.

"How's _that_ for a surprise?" Raven gloated, her lips curled in an uncharacteristic smirk. "And now, since I'm guessing you're having trouble concentrating enough to counter even something as simple as the Flame of Nartok, we get to the _fun_ part…"

Raven threw her hands out towards the wheezing and now nearly prostrate Baker, translucent, shimmering black auras of power still playing about them, and released her spell. There was a burst of dark flame, and the blast lifted Baker and carried him backwards like he had been shot out of a cannon. He was unconscious even before he slammed into the stone wall behind him.

"Oh, yeah! _Hadou ken_, baby!" Beast Boy yelled from behind Raven, where he was riding on the back of an unfortunate winged demon, battering it about the head with a large rock. "Can you do a _kame hame ha_, too?" Raven stiffened and turned around to glare at him, slowly, as though she had to exert all of her restraint to keep from removing his limbs as painfully as she knew how. Knowing that this might not be far from the truth, Beast Boy tried to hide behind the demon he had been fighting, and while the demon didn't know Raven's temper as well as Beast Boy did, it could sense the power and roiling emotions fighting for release within her, and did its best to hide as well, covering its face with one leathery wing while somehow still staying airborne.

"_Did you just call me…baby?_" Raven asked calmly, but her voice was laced with deadly intent. Beast Boy gulped nervously.

"Uh…it was really more of a general exclamation than anything else, honest!" he whimpered. The demon nodded emphatically. Raven glared at the two of them and huffed angrily, the worst apparently past.

"Just shut up and cover me while I close this stupid portal," she ordered, and turned to face the rift. Both Beast Boy and the demon sighed with relief.

"Okay, note to self: don't mess with Raven when she's on a battle high," Beast Boy murmured.

"No shit," the demon agreed. Beast Boy looked at it, and they locked gazes for a moment. Then Beast Boy gave it a final bludgeon with his rock.

Meanwhile, Raven floated into the middle of the huge chamber, directly below the centre of the dimensional portal, and began chanting. The other Titans had to fight as hard as they could to keep the demons away from her, slashing, shooting, blasting, and clawing for all they were worth, but still the demons came, and every moment they pressed in harder than the last. Finally, Raven's chanting reached a crescendo, and with a shout she launched a ball of dense black energy straight upwards into the portal, which rippled and began to close. Utter chaos erupted, as the demons all screeched in rage and frustration—some attempted to flee back to their own dimension, while others sought to claw their way through to reality while the rift was still open, giving the Titans a brief respite in the confusion. However, this did not last, for when the portal was closed at last, at least fifty demons were left in the chamber. Robin grinned confidently.

"Alright, Titans, we can make it through these guys," he called. "Stay close, support each other, and ten-to-one odds won't mean a thing."

"Too true," said a voice, and Drakon emerged from the shadows as though he had been a part of them. "In fact," he continued, "I've seen you guys get out of situations like this without a hitch so many times before that I don't really need to see it again for my little investigation."

"Drakon, I presume?" Robin ventured. Drakon smiled disarmingly and bowed, but Robin's eyes narrowed. "What kind of investigation?" he asked.

"Oh, dear, I believe I've made a little slip of the tongue. I'm so very sorry, Raven. You must have wanted to keep your privacy," Drakon said, and smirked a little so only Raven could see. She glared at him.

"I thought you said your investigation was already over, Drakon," Raven growled. Once again, Drakon smiled disarmingly.

"I lied," he stated simply. "But now that it _truly_ is over, I have no reason to stay aloof any longer. And I must say, as interesting as it is to watch your antics, Titans, I have been getting rather restless. So, I hope you'll allow me to indulge myself a bit, and take these demons off of your hands for you."

"You want to fight _all_ of those demons…_by yourself?_" Cyborg cried disbelievingly. "That's crazy!"

"Yes, their sheer numbers will surely make their defeat all but impossible for a single warrior to accomplish," Starfire added, but Drakon only grinned.

"Ah, yes, 'all but impossible'—that little 'all but' makes a considerable difference, you see, so it's not _really_ impossible at all," he said. "In fact, it's actually _quite_ possible. Trust me, I've done this kind of thing before."

"Trust you?" Cyborg shot back. "All we know about you is that you've been _spying_ on Raven and the rest of us, and you know what? That doesn't exactly count in your favour."

"Let him do what he wants," Robin murmured, staring thoughtfully at Drakon. The other Titans gaped at him in shock.

"You _trust_ him?" Cyborg asked, not believing his ears. "_You_ trust _him?_"

"No, of course I don't trust him. We just don't have time to argue right now," Robin replied, indicating with a small gesture the crowd of demons eyeing them hungrily, waiting for any sign of weakness. "Besides, he seems to trust _himself_—I want to see what he can do."

"Thank you. I'll try not to disappoint," Drakon said with a small bow. He then pressed his hands together in front of him as though he was praying, closed his eyes, and concentrated for a moment. At first, nothing seemed to be happening, but then black markings began to appear on Drakon's body, spreading from some unseen source under his shirt onto his arms, neck, and face. They looked like a kind of mix between writing in some strange alphabet, pictograms, and simple geometric shapes. The markings moved across his skin, more inside it than overtop of it, eventually settling in seemingly permanent positions. If they hadn't known that the markings hadn't been there just moments before, the Titans would have sworn that they were ordinary tattoos. As the last of the strange markings had settled into place, covering every visible inch of his skin, Drakon let his hands drop, and as they fell his fingernails lengthened until they were nearly claws, turning black as they did so. Finally, he opened his eyes. They, too, had changed: they were now completely black, whites and all, except for the irises, which were a bright, almost glowing yellow. Drakon smiled.

"_That_ feels better," he said, his voice containing a slight growling tone that it had not possessed before. He stretched, splaying his hands out to his sides, and for a moment the strange markings covering his body seemed to shift and move before once again settling into place.

"You're a half-demon," Raven whispered, her voice barely audible.

"What, did you think you were the only one?" Drakon asked with a wolfish grin. "Now, while I'd love to stay and chat, I have to go take care of some interdimensional interlopers."

With that, Drakon launched himself effortlessly from the stone platform, and landed amongst the demons, scattering them with nothing more than the force of his impact. They roared and leapt at him. He just grinned.

The fight was over quickly. The demons were fast and powerful, but they simply couldn't touch Drakon. He, on the other hand, fought like a man possessed, using his bare hands to tear and claw at his opponents. He used no magic, fighting like a beast, but still he felled five demons or more with each strike. In terms of sheer power, the demons simply could not compete, and it was only a matter of minutes before the last one was destroyed. Drakon paused a moment to regain his composure, and then leapt back up onto the platform. He dusted himself off, rather theatrically, and then smiled at the Titans.

"Not exactly the most civilized way to deal with demons, but it is still quite effective," Drakon said conversationally. "There's also a certain visceral pleasure in engaging an opponent physically, but I usually do my best to suppress that kind of thing when in polite company."

"…Whoa," Cyborg mumbled. As a firm believer in science, he had always had trouble dealing with the concept of magic, and while his association with Raven had helped him widen his perspective a little, the clear disregard for some of the absolute fundamentals of physics and biomechanics that Drakon had just displayed still blew his mind, leaving him able to say little else. Raven, on the other hand, who was far more comfortable with magic, was merely very, very impressed.

"Y-y-you can c-control your powers," she stuttered in shock. "You're a half-demon, but you can still…I thought they couldn't…_we_ couldn't control our…"

"Most half-demons can't, but some can—the strong ones, the ones like us, Raven," Drakon stated.

"But I…I can't…my emotions get out of control, and my…my father…" Raven stammered, but Drakon interrupted her.

"Yes, your father does complicate things a little, but the main reason you have trouble controlling your powers is that you are still young and lack experience," he explained. "Age brings wisdom, but it also brings calmness and knowledge of the self, including any abilities or powers one might have."

"And how old are you then, exactly?" Raven asked hesitantly.

"Well, I've stopped counting my birthdays long ago, but I'm somewhere in the neighbourhood of six hundred years old," Drakon replied, and laughed when the Titans' eyes widened in shock. "Oh, don't look at me like that. Demons are immortal, so half-demons tend to age in funny ways."

"Six hundred years?" Raven asked, just a hint of a plaintive wail intruding on her normally calm voice. "I'm going to have to wait _six hundred years_ before I can control my powers?"

"Actually, even now, I can't control my power without using an external aid," Drakon continued, and ran a finger down his cheek and neck to indicate the strange markings that covered his skin. "Without these runes and seals to hold my power in check, not only would I not be able to control my abilities, but I would have also burnt out centuries ago." Raven stiffened with fear, but Drakon just chuckled and gestured for her to stay calm.

"Don't worry, don't worry," he continued. "All half-demons are different, and their powers develop at different rates and in different ways. We each have to find what works best for us. For me, it's these seals and centuries of practice—for you, it'll probably be something else entirely, and maybe a lot less time. For what it's worth, while it isn't perfect, your meditation seems to be working pretty well for now." Raven relaxed a little, and Drakon smiled and turned to address the Titans as a whole.

"Well, guys, it's been fun, really, but now I have to get going," he said, backing away slowly. "See you around."

"Hey, wait a second, what about…" Robin began, but Drakon had already backed into the shadows and disappeared. Robin cursed mildly.

"How did he _do_ that?" he asked nobody in particular. "I mean, I can see turning around and him just being gone, but I was looking _right at_ him."

"Just let it go, Robin—it's magic," Raven sighed, as her exhaustion finally overtook her.

"Jeez, that was pretty intense there, Raven," Beast Boy piped up. "I hope you didn't mind us listening in on your little private conversation with mister tall, dark, and gruesome." Raven glared daggers at him, and Beast Boy dove behind Cyborg.

"You just _have_ to keep bugging her, don't you?" Cyborg asked, exasperation apparent in his tone.

"Yes, Friend Beast Boy, that was hardly appropriate given the circumstances," Starfire scolded, taking the elder sister role for a change. "And while this Drakon person is indeed tall and somewhat dark, he is not gruesome at all. I believe that he is actually quite handsome by Earth standards for males, although his snake _is_ rather frightening. However, I did not see it with him at all. Although, I suppose those strange tattoos he had were frightening as well in a way, but then on the other hand, the tribal markings of the inhabitants of Grenlax XVIII are considerably more…"

"GUYS!" Raven interrupted, startling Beast Boy and Cyborg out of their bickering, and Starfire out of her impromptu verbal treatise on the scariness of tattoos versus that of snakes. "As amusing as this interminable babbling is, could we please go home? I am very, _very_ tired, and I _really_ need a shower."

"Right, there isn't much more we can do here anyway, so let's just go home," Robin said with his usual air of good-natured authority. "I'll just make sure Baker is tied up and swing by the local precinct to let the police know about this and give a statement—you guys go on ahead to the tower."

"Thank you," Raven murmured. "I don't know how much more of that I could've taken."

"Oh, come on, you know you like us," Beast Boy leered. Raven glared at him again, and once more he hid behind Cyborg.

"Don't thank me just yet, Raven," Robin said, ignoring the smaller green boy's sniping. "We're still going to have a talk about what's been going on lately. You've been keeping things from us, and while I have no problem with you wanting your privacy, today has made it quite obvious that these secrets of yours pose a threat to this team, and I can't allow that." Raven swallowed nervously, but nodded.

"Ooh, someone's in _trouble_," Beast Boy called from behind Cyborg. Raven whirled around, her hand raised menacingly.

"Azarath, Metrion…" she began, but then stopped. "Ah, screw it, I'm too tired," she snapped. "I'll kill you in the morning."

"Better start running now, grass stain," Cyborg suggested, acting as the voice of reason once again.

Beast Boy followed his advice.

**OOO**

Drakon stepped into the narrow circle of light with casual ease. The small patch of light was bordered on all sides by seemingly impenetrable darkness—without the context of any sort of visible surroundings it seemed as though it was a single island of solidity floating in otherwise unoccupied space, like a firmament in some primordial void. The effect was unsettling, but while it was not lost on Drakon, he simply shrugged it off. After six hundred years, he had become used to it.

"Submit your report, Brother Drakon," boomed a disembodied voice from the darkness.

"As I am sure my status reports indicated, my investigation proceeded according to plan, and I was able to observe the primary subject, Raven of Azarath, as well as her friends and teammates the Teen Titans from afar, so as to minimize chances of contaminating the surveillance by allowing them to know of my presence," Drakon stated in a near monotone, reciting his report from memory. "From this initial observation I determined that Raven and the Titans work well as a team with only a few minor internal tensions based on their differing personalities. The Titans seemed to provide Raven with emotional support, when she allowed them to, and also seemed to strengthen her moral compass, which was already quite strong due to her training in Azarath. All in all, the intentions of both Raven and the rest of the Titans seemed to be genuinely good, but I could not be as certain as was required based solely on remote observation. It was after realizing this, several weeks ago, that I submitted to the Circle a request for permission to more closely engage the subject in order to ascertain whether these outside appearances were, in fact, the true face of her intentions. A request which, for the record, was duly approved, if you recall."

"Hmph. We do recall, Drakon. Please continue," a different voice spoke. Drakon nodded and continued.

"Since a person's true intentions become most apparent in the crucible of conflict, I arranged for a little test, a trial by fire, if you will. During the course of my initial investigation, I became peripherally aware of some minor plot by a hack sorcerer to take over the world, or something insipid like that, and rather than simply nipping this scheme in the bud as I normally would, I instead decided to use this situation as a proving ground for Raven. Naturally, I maintained a careful watch over this sorcerer, Rufus Baker, and his little cabal of followers throughout the proceedings to ensure that nothing got out of hand. At first, I simply continued to observe from a distance, but I soon made my presence known to the subject, both because nothing was happening that I had not already seen before in considerable detail and because a situation arose that she was not yet ready to deal with at her current stage of development."

"Ah, yes, the appearance of the arch-demon Rashael," yet another disembodied voice mused. "It is unusual for such a powerful demon to be able to maintain a possession in such a diffuse magical field, even one as strong as the one this Baker and his cronies were creating. I must say, though, you dealt with it admirably."

"Thank you. It did provide something of a jump-start to this more personal part of my investigation, allowing me to supply the subject with an effective weapon against the demons in order to see how she would go about using it, as well as to see how she would explain them to her teammates. While she is a very private person and wished to keep my involvement hidden from the other Titans, it seems that she felt considerable guilt in doing so, indicating that she is indeed grounded in at least the part of the normal human moral code that deals with lies and deceit. By appearing to her, I was also able to give Raven some small pushes in directions that would be of benefit in determining her motives, such as bringing up the matter of her parentage and increasing her sense of guilt over keeping secrets from her friends. I also directed her towards the prophecy, although I had to alter it slightly so that it would seem more relevant to the current situation."

"Hmm, another masterful stroke, Brother Drakon," the first voice interjected. "To increase the urgency of the situation by tying it into the prophecy surrounding Trigon's arrival—a very nice touch."

"Again, thank you. To make a long story short, Raven and the Titans succeeded in foiling Baker's plans, and while I intervened to complete the clean-up, I am certain that had I left them to their own devices they would have prevailed with little incident. Besides, allowing them to finish things themselves would not have brought any new information to light for my investigation."

"Very well, Brother Drakon. What, then, do you conclude from all of this?" one of the voices asked. Drakon took a deep breath before continuing.

"It is my opinion that the subject, Raven of Azarath, will undoubtedly be of use to our cause," he stated flatly. "Given her power, which is already nearly beyond my ability to calculate and still growing, she may well be one of the only entities capable of finally defeating Trigon the Terrible, and while she is connected to him by blood, she hates him just as much as any of us. With the false prophecy to motivate her, I am certain that she will fight against him when he arrives on Earth."

"Yes, the prophecy," one of the voices repeated. "'The daughter of Trigon will have a role to play'—just ambiguous enough that her desire to prove that she would never serve her father will only harden her resolve to destroy him."

"Some of our best work, I think," added another voice, and there was a general chuckling from the darkness surrounding Drakon, indicating that there were far more faceless voices present than just those that had spoken.

"May the destruction of Trigon be nigh!" one of the voices cried, and it was quickly joined by shouts of assent, resulting in a din that lasted for several minutes.

"Excellent work, Brother Drakon," boomed a new voice, filled with a proud imperiousness, after the others fell silent once again. "That will be all for now."

Drakon bowed slightly, and then vanished into the void as the single light that illuminated him was extinguished.

_-END-_

**Author's Note:** (Not in script format, because that would be awkward with all the stuff I want to say.) Okay, so this story is finally done. It didn't take me nearly as long as I had thought it would, since I once again collapsed two chapters into one for this instalment. I don't think I've left any loose ends lying around in terms of the plot (although I know that some will eventually turn up after a good close read), not counting the big one about the Circle's manipulations at the end, of course. The only thing that might require some sorting out is Robin's talk with Raven, but I think that merely the suggestion of that is enough. In my opinion, episodes like "Birthmark" and "The Prophecy" pretty much cover the "what am I gonna tell the Titans" thing that Raven is facing, and since I like to stick to what appears in the show I'm not going to redo any of that.

Speaking of what the episodes address, as you can probably tell the events of season four kind of messed up the Circle's plans, as well as my own (as I have much lamented in the last few author's notes). I can just imagine a member of the Circle saying "Oh, shit. She's turned into a _portal_? Well, _that_ bites." Then again, she did end up fighting Trigon eventually, so whatever. (As an aside, I was kind of basing my plans off of what I had seen in various character summaries for Raven, which said that at one point in the comic books she was turned evil by Trigon. At least, that's what I _think_ they said.)

As for the big loose end of the Circle's intentions, my basic idea was that the whole reason for their order's existence was to destroy Trigon, and that they were manipulating Raven into doing it for them. This would have, of course, led to a big dramatic confrontation between Raven and Drakon later on, had 'Da Plan' gone according to, well, _plan_—something along the lines of "You lied to me, you bastard! I'm still going to destroy Trigon, but I'm not doing it for you!" Needless to say, this will not be happening. Sorry. On the plus side, I hope to start on something bright, shiny, and new very soon, now that I have freed myself from the bonds of this story. Huzzah!

Actually, I have two bright, shiny, and new things I hope to be working on, one an occasionally posted humour piece, and the other one another serious story, and maybe the occasional one-shot in case I get bored. Shameless self-promotion! Yeehaw!

It occurs to me that Raven might be a little out of character at some points in this chapter (like when she says "this is personal now"), but to be quite honest, I was mildly amused by it, and I kind of needed that in order to finish this story. I dislike this chapter on the whole, although I don't really know exactly how to fix it—Raven out of character, Drakon going from an almost Smoking Man figure (at least as far as I'm capable of writing at this point) to being just a typical male Mary-Sue combat god. And that transformation bit? Christ, I've been watching _way_ too much Naruto. Raven being out of character amused me, like I said, so that's fine I guess, and Drakon's transformation and subsequent crazy beat down on the demons was one of the reasons I started writing this story, which in retrospect was an _extremely _bad idea. Oh, well. Drakon's report was okay, and Raven _did_ get to kick someone in the nuts.

Anyway, on to my review responses. To the Bag Cave!

**To My Reviewers:** To start, thank you to anyone who has reviewed, and to anyone who reviews this chapter. I've kept people waiting a long time with this story, and my loss of enthusiasm shows up in my writing, I'm sure, and for that I am sorry. All I can say is that I will try to keep myself fresh with my next stories, which won't have anything to do with the next season (which deals with Beast Boy and the Doom Patrol, from what I have been told by a friend of mine who keeps up with these things much more diligently than I do). Hopefully this will mean that my ideas don't get stomped on like they did with this story. Fingers crossed! Anyway…

teenyugiohpotterphantom: Thank you. I have often come across stories that I find myself simply unable to read, despite them having some neat ideas, just because of consistently poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Call me a linguistic fascist if you want, but when I have to translate someone's story into _real_ English before I can make sense of it, chances are I'm not going to read it. Unfortunately, this might lead into a kind of downwards spiral, where people don't read these stories that need improvement, so the stories don't get reviews suggesting how they might be improved, so they never _do_ improve, so nobody reads them, etc, etc. On the other hand, if you can't write a coherent sentence by junior high, your fan fiction not getting any reviews is the least of your worries. But enough philosophizing.

CloudsHalo: Thanks. It might just be my lack of enthusiasm for this story that makes me think it sucks so much, I guess. Hopefully by finally moving on to the stories I have been dying to do for the past few months but have saved until I was done with Watched will get my enthusiasm back up again, and maybe my writing will improve with it. Here's hoping. And the sheer impossibility of Raven playing the damsel in distress was definitely my motivating factor in putting her in that situation. Does that count as irony? It's funny, anyway.

SugarDevil: To be totally honest, I had entirely forgotten about the appearance spell. Nice catch. It's a plot hole, I know, but I was kind of working under the assumption that they were scouting around in their usual costumes, purple hair and all. I was never explicit about it, though, which I really should have been. And besides, even if Raven had been scouting around with her appearance spell in effect, yes, the collar would have negated it, since it basically turns all her powers, including any magical spells she might be performing, off. Oh, and thanks for the cookie. I do loves me the virtual cookies.

Blackbird: After how long I took to get new chapters up for this story, I don't think a late review is all that bad. Computer trouble is something I understand all too well. Good catch with the whole "shy kid possessed by a demon" thing. I wondered if anyone would get that right off the bat. Baker did indeed bite off more than he could chew, even if you don't bring Trigon into the picture. Getting kicked in the nuts hurts. A lot. Nature has done a very good job of convincing males to protect the means of their reproduction, to be sure. I will definitely take a look at the new chapter in your story, but I'll save that for my review.


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